Their prices were about 40 percent lower than their real value, on which they were given to the main contractor, according to Al-Riyadh newspaper.
According to its report, these foreign brokers had obtained hundreds of construction projects in various parts of the Kingdom, as big companies had subleased them for a 10 percent commission.
The newspaper recalled that the departments concerned had presented all small projects scattered over the Kingdom in a single offer, making it possible only for big contractors to win. This procedure has deprived small Saudi contractors from competing, the report claimed. It said a number of small contractors had complained that the foreign middlemen and brokers implemented those projects with bad quality, which adversely affected the reputation of the Saudi contracting sector.
They held the government responsible for assigning all its projects to big companies. One of these big contractors alone, they said, was implementing construction projects worth more than SR200 million. "This has excluded small and medium Saudi contractors," the newspaper quoted them as saying.
Abdul Hakeem Al-Sahli, a Saudi investor in the contracting sector, told the paper that a number of foreign middlemen and brokers were now marketing big contracting projects. He asked the government not to place all projects for giant contractors only.
He called for help of an international managing system for government projects, similar to the one in Dubai and other countries, so as to save these projects from faltering. Ibrahim Al-Rajhi, another contracting investor, agreed with Al-Sahli. He said the reason behind the growing phenomenon of foreign middlemen is that all projects are going to big contracting companies.
"About 75 percent of the foreign manpower in big projects is not on the sponsorship of the executing companies, which therefore are obliged to seek the help of other specializing companies," he said.
Al-Rajhi urged the government to intensify supervision of the projects and to force the winning contractor to use his own manpower and technical staff. He also called for the establishment of a higher authority for Saudi contractors and for giving all government construction projects to the Ministry of Housing.
