A local newspaper recently reported that the president of the National Committee for Contractors was delighted that the government had decided not to issue foreign contractors permits to undertake government building projects. The report added that more than 160,000 local contractors were in the process of trying to convince the authorities to dismiss foreign contractors and rely on local contractors.
I believe this could all lead to a potential disaster. It would be a tragedy if the government accepts what these “national contractors” call for — contractors who have a track record of ruining all projects they have ever undertaken.
Nowadays, Saudi citizens want to see state-of-the-art projects completed exactly as designed by architects on paper. Fundamentally people want to be able to conveniently use such buildings and aren’t bothered about who builds them — whether they’re companies from the Amazon in South America or from Bisha in Saudi Arabia, quality and efficiency are the most important things.
Saudi contracting companies aren’t in anyway serious. In fact the word “national” that such companies eagerly include in their names is only descriptive of the owners, the workers are generally unqualified non-Saudis.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. The Dela Pass in southern Saudi Arabia was under a so-called national contractor for over 20 years. The fact that tens of people have died using the pass clearly reflects the poor workmanship and to top things off I wouldn’t be surprised if the contractors earned double the money of the actual cost of the entire project.
For more than 10 years a national contractor has been busy constructing a hospital in Khamis Mushayt. Horrifically we’re left with an entire city without a proper hospital.
For four years another national contractor has been busy burrowing a 100-meter tunnel in Madinah for the benefit of the visitors to the Prophet’s Mosque — the project should have been completed within six months but all that we’re seeing are traffic jams and more delays.
To add salt to our wounds, the president of the National Committee for Contractors also called for the government to ease the issuing of visas for foreign workers and said that the labor office should forget insisting on the Saudiazation of construction companies. I wonder what sort of nationalism these companies are really hoping for?
Saudi citizens are more concerned with seeing projects completed quickly and efficiently — they’re not bothered whether companies come from China or from the far distant corners of the world.
