We have just completed a new library and withdrawal rooms in school. They were handed over four weeks ago but the builders left a bit of a mess and there were some incomplete works. A final amount of $200,000 was due and then there was a bond for the snags. I had two long walkarounds, identifying snags and incomplete works, with the architect but the builder did not attend. Nothing was happening so we withheld the last cheque. The number of visits and phone calls that I got were unreal. Everybody got very excited. Apparently that is not the way they do things here! Worse still, I had let it be known at site meetings that I once withheld money from a builder for three years, in Ireland. Not just the builder but the architect and even the CEO were on my case. "That is not how we do things here!" was the mantra. "We use the bond and after a year you can cash that if need be to complete the works." We ( I obviously had the backing of the Board) were breaking a contract and liable to pay interest charges on the money due.
Of course we were not (technically) refusing to pay the money but rather "investigating the issuance of the completion cert"! They got on to the Chairman of the Board and he had to calm down and reason with 'That Mad Irishman'. Major panic all around not helped by the fact that I would be out of the country before anything got to court. I think that I was the only one that was not mad. So we had three weeks of nothing and then a week of work like you could not have imagined. By Friday, all the major outstanding works were completed. We handed over the cheque on Thursday, as a goodwill gesture having completed our investigations on the completion cert. The Chairman of the Board was thanked profusely for sorting it out!
It was great craic.
No comments:
Post a Comment