(MENAFN - Jordan Times) With JD100 million owed by the government to construction companies, local contractors are fuming over "official carelessness in dealing with this situation".
"We need to talk with the government and seek its help in this regard," said a contractor who asked not to be named.
"In simple words, the government is not paying our due amounts and the banks are not giving us enough credit facilities to survive until we get our claims from the government and its agencies," the contractor added.
He stressed that the government must shoulder its responsibilities. At least, it must push local banks to ease their conditions and requirements to finance state projects through the contractors.
Jordan Contracting Construction Association (JCCA) on Saturday warned that the delay in paying more than JD100 million to local contractors will lead to "suspension of plenty of projects that are under construction."
The due amount increased over the past three months by JD30 million and is expected to jump over JD130 million in less than a month, according to JCCA figures.
"The construction sector will lose most of its capabilities soon if the government turns its back to the local contractors and delay paying the due amounts," JCCA President Ahmad Tarawneh wrote in a letter to the prime minister.
According to Tarawneh, JD50 million is owed by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and another JD50 million is owed by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. There are also certain amounts pending in other ministries and agencies including the Ministry of Tourism and the Greater Amman Municipality.
The situation is very bad, the JCCA president said in the letter. "The challenge now is how to get out of this situation with minimum losses."
The letter to the premier came after the JCCA reached a dead- end with repeated attempts to solve the issue with the concerned ministries and lower level government agencies have failed. It seems such entities can not help at all, said Marouf Ghananim, member of the JCCA council.
