Cable theft twice delays Jaber City project

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 10: In a serious incident that requires rapid action to protect public money, electricity cables under the project of building, completing and performing maintenance works on roads and intersections that serve the city of Jaber Al-Ahmad, cables were twice stolen after they were installed in the places specified on the project plan, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Letters from the contractor to the Minister Works Dr Rana Al-Fares and Director of the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation included justification for the delay in the delivery of project, saying in May 2019, he submitted a request to the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation to disburse the pre-final payment directly to the approved subcontractors.

However, it was not paid until August 2020, which is more than a year after submitting the application. The contractor indicated he had notified the authority of the electricity cable theft and demanded 400,000 dinars to re-install the cables and complete the remaining work but the authority requested him to address the minister to disburse the aforementioned sum despite the total sum of collateral and final payment estimated at five million dinars.

The other letter included response to the previous letter at the request of the Minister in which the Director of Public Authority for Roads and Transportation Suha Ashkanani said: “The theft of electricity cables after their installation falls within the contractual responsibility of the contractor as he is in charge of the duration of contract implementation until the initial delivery”.

Ashkanani added the aforementioned amount cannot be disbursed from the calculation of the final payment due to lack of a contractual bond. “It is impossible to pay such money except the initial payment of which 10 percent can be refunded from the issued payment certificate, while the reserved guarantee intended for the maintenance period would be held until the issuance of the final handover certificate”

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