06.11.2023
Many Cypriots are completely dissatisfied with the quality of supervision of some construction consultants. It appears that some want to get as much pay as possible during design and as little as possible during supervision. During construction supervision, it seems that it is secondary and the service is unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, this approach prevailed for many years. Design is one thing, but monitoring the proper execution of the project is another. Below are some cautionary tales.
In one project, the designer failed to consult with government authorities about the size of water pipes before installing them along a public road in Pissouri . As a result, the pipes were the wrong size and the road had to be re-excavated to install the correct pipes, costing an additional €60,000.
In another case, the analysis of a wastewater treatment plant consultant’s proposal was completely wrong and the study found that the consultant’s recommendation would cost €28,000 more. Having discovered the problem, the consultant said he would look at it again for an additional fee!
Another consultant used the wrong sewer pipe slope and the system did not work.
A project to place turbines in a lake to the specifications of foreign designers was carried out by local consultants who recommended the wrong turbines, resulting in additional costs of €21,000.
More recently, a case of land subsidence in the Limnes area of Pissouri led to the government undertaking partial renovations of a multi-million dollar development project. A geological survey carried out by the architect in advance would have prevented this.
However, despite the large number of incompetent specialists, at the same time there are offices of mechanical and electrical consultants to whom “hats off” for their professionalism.
One electromechanical consultant refused to supervise the contractor’s work because the quality was unacceptable.
In another case, after awarding tenders and inspecting equipment delivered to the construction site that did not meet its manufacturer’s specifications, the consultant rejected them all.
Another consulting director fired an employee who did not regularly report on supervision and carried out a new detailed review and supervision at his own expense.
The damage done to public trust by incompetent professionals also affects good consultants. There are buildings with serious structural problems resulting from serious negligence both on the part of the contractor due to poor execution and on the part of the manager and designer due to poor supervision.
Contractors, in order to obtain a work permit from the Contractors Registration and Control Board, claim that some engineers are their employees and that they own the machines, although this is not the case.
The alarm must now be sounded to ensure that the public carefully selects its consultants. You need to be demanding, but, on the other hand, pay your consultants correctly and on time.
Correct selection is essential to good performance, especially in electromechanical matters, since almost everything is filled with concrete and subsequent error checking leads to increased costs for contractors and entrepreneurial developers and certainly to great damage to unsuspecting buyers.
