Third World ? Seems we are in it

Glenhuon (Bill) · #1 02-07-2009, 12:47 AM

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...96-952,00.html

Just read this, and as someone who has done inspections on contractor built plants many times (all be it on a much smaller scale), why am I not surprised. I have made recommendations and pointed out substandard installations that have been ignored by "them above". The contractors are trying to save money and the installers who employ cheap (poorly trained) labour. But I blame the people who are supposedly monitoring performance of said contractors. Shaking my head in disbelief. At least they are digging the heels in and not accepting it until the faults are fixed. I've taken over plants and spent the next few years fixing the problems that got ignored, at great expense to the company, and at times risk to my men. Time we got some real PRACTICAL engineers on the job, ones that have actually got their hands dirty.

Bill

Nesti (Mark) · #2 02-07-2009, 11:38 AM

Bill, you're absolutely right, but dare I say that you're not the only one. The real culprit in this issues is the accuser. It is the government and its archaic tendering process, in which the government screws down the price, and then pushes as hard as they can for value-add. In the end, the contractor which wins, is the contractor who knows how to cut costs and scratch-back a few bucks here and there, and ultimately, cuts corners!

What you are describing, and that article i a classic, is the inevitable long-term oucomes, w-a-y down the path, when the contracted entity has already done everything it can to build it and make some profit, using substandard labor and materials. This is in actuality, an epidemic, and I really do mean that, yet the government still thinks it can squeeze harder.

Everyone in government wants to look good and/or criticise the opposition (Shadow) member. Its what they do, and the wake-up call to everyone reading, is that it comes before doing the right thing for the public interest, who partly pay for the infrastructure, and the corporations who pay for the remainder. Government are like banks, they play with the money of others, they do not create, they merely ditribute, but they have got themselves into some game of one-up-manship, of cat-n-mouse, and have all but forgotten about quality.

In WA, the newspapers are forever bringing projects with cost-overruns to the reader's attention, and blaming the contractor. Why?! Because the initial costing was budgeted on a previous job, which was itself done on a shoe-string, and yet this job was tendered for even cheaper to make some minister look good. When the job screws up, the shadow minister is the one who looks good on the war-path and the minister goes into damage control...but this fixes nothing!

The government is very, very quick to point the finger, but in reality, it consistantly creates its own issues.

What this country needs is a handful of large failed projects, so eventually somebody smart in parliament will makes themselves look good, by pointing out the obvious...the government tendering process is all wrong an needs reform!

I'm doing projects right now, with my money and that of my investors. Do I go with the cheapest? No, I pay for a quality produced product, not on promise. And you know what, it's way cheaper, coz it lasts longer.

This is the problem the US is facing right now, collapsing infrastructure, attributed to cost-cutting.

Robh (Rob) · #3 02-07-2009, 01:20 PM

Can't wait to see what happens when Sydney's desal plant gets up and running!

Regards, Rob

AstralTraveller (David) · #4 02-07-2009, 01:36 PM

I noticed with interest the name of one of the contractors. Twenty years ago I was working in nw WA in a steel-supply business. One day I received a call from this contractor, who did not normally buy from us, wanting all the 100x5 or 100x6 flat plate we had, plus wanting tonnes more brought up ASAP.

When I delivered the steel that afternoon I was assisted by the site manager as there were no workers around. It turned out that they had not installed kick-plates on the raised walkways as they should and this had caused an accident which nearly killed a worker. All the rest of the workers were on strike and the manager was trying to make things look better before Workcover (or whatever the equivalent is in WA) arrived.

Glenhuon (Bill) · #5 02-07-2009, 10:11 PM

Problem with most outfits nowadays is the fact that accountants call the tune and not engineers. I learned very earlly on that when doing business cases for up coming projects it didn't matter how many good engineering reasons you put forward as to when and how it should be done, and to what standard. Unless you could prove to the bean counters it was going save money, avoid bad publicity and/or avoid being sued for injury and property damage, you had no chance of getting it approved. Gee, I wrote some fairy stories, should take it up and write fiction

Bill

AstralTraveller (David) · #6 02-07-2009, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

Problem with most outfits nowadays is the fact that accountants call the tune and not engineers. I learned very earlly on that when doing business cases for up coming projects it didn't matter how many good engineering reasons you put forward as to when and how it should be done, and to what standard. Unless you could prove to the bean counters it was going save money, avoid bad publicity and/or avoid being sued for injury and property damage, you had no chance of getting it approved. Gee, I wrote some fairy stories, should take it up and write fiction

Bill

Very sad situation.