Subcontractors lose out
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday March 29, 2011
SYDNEY building company Inscope Solutions left a trail of financial destruction for Newcastle subcontractors before going into liquidation last week.Contracted to build the government housing project in York Street, Teralba, Inscope Solutions got the units to lock-up stage before abandoning the site.The company was placed in the hands of administrators with debts totalling about $6.5 million, leaving unsecured creditors such as Jeff Pearce, from JJ Pearce Bricklaying, fuming."The government gives these builders the jobs and they just aren't geared up to do it," Mr Pearce, one of the subcontractors owed money from the job, said."It's not the first time it's happened and we keep losing money every time. You take these jobs on thinking that everything should be right because it is government funded but it's making the government look like idiots."Manfred Holzman from Holzman Associates was appointed liquidator for Inscope Solutions that left a debt of about $1.4 million owing to the National Australia Bank, about $600,000 to the Australian Taxation Office and an unknown amount to subcontractors."I went to [Inscope Solutions] for the first payment of $40,000 and it was a mission getting it out of them," Mr Pearce said."They've caught a heap of contractors up here and as unsecured creditors we are always the last ones that get paid if there is any money left."The government project bungle comes a month after Maintek Projects collapsed while working on 10 Building the Education Revolution projects in Sydney.The Maintek project left 28 sub-contractors about $5 million out of pocket and followed Coffs Harbour company Perle Constructions, which collapsed last month after failing to pay subcontractors on two school projects."Inscope Solutions Pty Ltd was contracted by Housing NSW under the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan to build nine separate projects and has successfully delivered five of these projects," a Housing NSW spokesman said."Housing NSW has paid its bills to Inscope Solutions and done so promptly, as it has throughout the delivery of the economic stimulus plan."
© 2011 Newcastle Herald
