President of the Jordan Construction Contractors Association (JCCA), Ahmad Tarawneh has expressed his concern that developers of giant building projects throughout Jordan will renege on their financial obligations to pay contractors for work they were contracted to do.
Contractors Owed JD 200million
If dues from public sector institutions are factored in, then the amount of money owed to contractors is greater than JD 200 million, said Tarawneh.
If they don’t get paid soon contractors will be forced to fire staff.
Among the stalled projects are the Disi Water Conveyance Project which is contracted to the Turkish company GAMA; the Saraya Aqaba real estate development; and the Abdali Urban Regeneration Project. Just these three schemes together are worth JD100 million, which has still not been paid.
“For the past two years, developers have been promising to pay their financial obligations to contractors but nothing happened,”
complained Tarawneh. He added that the delays have seriously harmed contractors, which will cause massive layoffs unless the companies begin to meet their financial obligations.
Jordanian Government Also Holding Back Funds
The government is also obligated to contractors, owing them an additional JD100 million, according to the JCCA. The Minister of Public Works and Housing Yahya Kisbi announced last week that the public sector owes contractors at least JD50 million. He said that the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation owes about JD21 million, which is connected to the financing of the Amman Development Corridor Project.
However, Tarawneh pointed out that there is an additional JD50 million that the government owes to contractors for projects that do not have allocated funds from the state budget.