ECDC feels the pinch as contractors fall short
FAILING small building contractors are “biting” the Eastern Cape Development Corporation’s pocket – so much so that 60% of its construction industry loans had to be written off in the past financial year. Speaking at the parastatal’s Integrated Emerging Contractor Development Model graduation ceremony, ECDC chief executive Mxolisi Matshamba warned that because of the high failure rate their loan requirements would become stricter in the future. The development model, designed for the ECDC by the Centre for Science and Industrial Research, aims to mentor emerging contractors on financial and project management skills so they can attain “emerged” status. “Every project that fails bites our pockets,” Matshamba said. “We have picked up that this is because of a lack of financial planning, tendering with incorrect prices or the fact that contractors deliberately underquote out of desperation to win.” He said another reason for their failure was that, instead of executing their projects, som