The problem of shoddy work done on Housing Development Corporation developments (HDC) is mainly due to a lack of regulation in the industry, says Desmond Haynes, president, Plumbers Association of T&T (PATT)."If the Government makes it mandatory that contracts, such as plumbing and electrical, are actually given to the licensed contractors, that's the only way to solve the problems of poor quality workmanship," Desmond said.
Some of the bigger companies in T&T that carry out large scale plumbing works include Haynes Plumbing, Martin's Plumbing and Maintenance Services and Plumbing Solutions. TPATT has 80 members.Desmond gave an example of the type of work his company does."We do developmental projects and infrastructure works, we do housing developments, like for the HDC, and commercial buildings."
Desmond and Ralph Haynes, TPATT's secretary-no relation-were interviewed by the Business Guardian at its St Vincent Street office, Port-of-Spain, two Tuesdays ago.
Raising standards
Desmond called for the raising of standards in the construction sector."You just have people doing small courses and coming out to work. That is going to cause a problem in the industry years from now. On a lot of the large project the previous government had, they allowed foreign contractors to come in to do these works. The Government felt as if local contractors could not do the plumbing and we did not have the skill base. The industry is hurting."
Inexperienced getting contracts
Desmond said contracts have been given to people without the necessary expertise."I know doctors and lawyers who got big contracts to build houses. They don't know anything about the construction industry. They got the contracts and they did not hire licensed contractors to handle projects. So to maximise profits, they got the little plumbing journey man to do the job and then got a licensed plumber to sign off on the completion document."
He cited the example of the Estate Management and Business Development Company Ltd (EMBD) entrusted with role of managing state-owned Caroni (1975) Ltd land to develop housing projects."It's a classic example of contractors using persons who are not properly trained in doing infrastructure plumbing works and putting them on these large housing estates. The contractors fouled it up. After the jobs were fouled up, then EMBD called in licensed contractors. Today, four contractors cannot receive payments of $15 million with no explanation."
Paying for remedial works
The T&T Guardian reported in June that Ganga Singh, chief executive officer, Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), said taxpayers would have to fork out $100 million for remedial waterworks at ten EMBD sites.Desmond also alleged that WASA is giving contracts to unsuitably qualified people."A lot of the water work projects WASA undertakes are not given to licensed contractors. They will give it to anybody who has two tractors and a truck, but the licensed contractors don't get the project and we want to see that changed. We were trained to do pipe laying."
Ralph said WASA, which is responsible for issuing plumbing licences, has not issued them in recent years.He said TPATT has sent letters to WASA on the issue, but there's been no response. Ralph said that Emmanuel George, Minister of Public Utilities, set up a committee to deal with certification standards."We met and discussed a way forward," Ralph said.Desmond said WASA in the past had a quota system. "I don't think the quota was more than 60 licences a year."
Metering programme
In response to the measures outlined in the 2012 budget statement, Ralph said there will be the need for large-scale plumbing services."It is evident that a large plumbing input will be involved in the infrastructure component of the economic transformation, such as the targeted 4,500 housing units for completion by HDC."Ralph contends that WASA does not have the capacity to achieve this."The Minster of Public Utilities spoke about the metering programme which, he said, is a done deal. He indicated last year he wants to cut off all standpipes and connect 50,000 households. All of this involves plumbing. WASA is the only authority to give approvals for most works. We are saying there will be a serious gap in terms of WASA servicing the approvals of these things."
Desmond said plumbers have been affected "very badly" by the economic downturn."Contractors who would normally get 12 projects for the year now would get two, for the most. Contractors, like myself, who carried a staff of 60 people, would now carry a staff of about 25. A month ago, I was down to about 15, but now I'm back to 25. HDC has not done much for the year. We have not seen much from Government projects," Desmond said.
WASA responds:
An e-mailed statement from WASA on Monday said that the utility has found instances where licensed sanitary constructors have done sub-standard work."It should be noted that WASA has found instances of sub-standard work by licensed sanitary constructors and instances of work by unlicensed persons. Some of these instances, for example, the EMBD sites, have been highlighted by the media. It is in the public's interest that trained and certified persons are licensed to do these critical works in homes and developments."
The statement also pointed out that those in the plumbing industry will be given training by the National Training Industry (NTA)."The authority is working with the NTA in developing a training and certification programme for persons operating as sanitary constructors. The training component should eliminate the issues of quality and best practice, which have been the source of a number of issues in the past.
"An initial assessment will be carried out of persons currently operating in the field and of deemed competence, they will go forward for certification by the NTA. This process should take one month, while other persons whose competency level needs to be improved, will be exposed to training prior to certification. The training will be for a period of three months. Certification will be recognised locally and within Caricom and provide a structured basis for issuance of licences."
On the subject of having a quota system for the issuance of licences for sanitary constructors, WASA said it never had such a system in place."