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RELATED: Plea for help made to Premier
RELATED: Millions unpaid to local tradies
RELATED: Theatre pay row
THE Melbourne-based builder at the centre of a pay dispute with subcontractors who worked on the Ulumbarra theatre still owes local companies money from past projects.
Local subcontractors confirmed to the Bendigo Advertiser on Tuesday they were still owed money from the Bendigo library project, Kyneton hospital and Golden Square primary school projects by Contract Control Services.
Danny Wells of Bendigo-based landscaper Groundswell confirmed Contract Control Services owed his business more than $14,000 from the Bendigo Library redevelopment.
Mr Wells said no explanation had been given to him by Contract Control Services as to why the bill had not been paid.
“We just can’t get any answers out of them,” he said.
Other businesses are owed more than $100,000 from the build of Golden Square Primary School’s new Maple Street campus which was opened in June.
Tens of thousands are also alleged to be outstanding from the Kyneton Hospital redevelopment.
Contract Control Services was last year awarded the contract to deliver the $14 million Boort Hospital redevelopment.
Subcontractors said they would avoid working on the Boort project “like the plague” given the difficulties they have experienced on other Contract Control Services-run jobs.
McCaig’s Air Conditioning’s Cameron McCaig said Contract Control Services was a “notoriously slow payers”.
“They’re trying every trick in the book to reduce what they’re going to pay the subcontractors. We keep getting the run around. Everyone here is very, very frustrated by the whole process,” he said.
Mr McCaig said the builders planned to pressure the education department to ensure subcontractors were paid and to instigate changes to the way payments were made. He said subcontractors should be paid directly, rather than money being channelled through a lead contractor.
Department of Education spokesman Simon Craig said the department, which is funding the project, was unable to pay subcontractors directly as it would contravene its contractual obligations.
