黑洞社区

Qatar鈥檚 World Cup organisers are putting workers鈥� welfare at risk by aggressively driving down costs during ongoing tendering for contractors to build stadiums, a source close to the bidding process has claimed.

As part of , construction professionals working in the country said conditions on sites were improving but that the scale of the problem remains huge.

One source close to the bidding for World Cup stadiums alleged the tournament鈥檚 client, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, was inadvertently disincentivising contractors from providing good welfare standards through a cut-throat approach to cost.

This source claimed: 鈥淸The Supreme Committee] still procures on lowest cost. They get 10 prices in [from contractors], then they鈥檒l pick the bottom four and ask these for their best and final price. Normally speaking you鈥檇 submit your best price at the outset. So nine out of 10 contractors will cut corners [to win].鈥�

The source alleged the 鈥渂ulk of the price鈥� on jobs in Qatar is labour costs and when squeezed 鈥渟omething鈥檚 got to go鈥�, adding: 鈥淵ou may end up cutting the flights, cutting the meals, or the quality of the food, or saying 鈥業鈥檒l go stick him in some slum area鈥�. That鈥檚 where some contractors will cut corners.鈥�

But another source familiar with the World Cup stadiums bidding process disagreed: 鈥淵es, it costs to maintain standards, but the Supreme Committee is very aware of that and deliberately put these standards in place. They know the scrutiny will be on them and that they鈥檝e got to [get welfare] right.鈥�

A spokesperson for the Supreme Committee said: 鈥淭he SC is committed to protecting the health, safety and well-being of the workers building the stadiums for the 2022 Fifa World Cup. We will never compromise this based on budgets.

鈥淎ll contractors tendering for an SC project are screened for compliance with the SC鈥檚 Workers鈥� Welfare Standards (WWS) before their technical and commercial proposals are even considered, creating a level playing field on which all contractors are encouraged to be compliant with the WWS.

鈥淭o-date, 120 inspections have been conducted as part of the SC鈥檚 Workers鈥� Welfare tender inspection audit process. 24 companies failed to meet the SC鈥檚 WW requirements and were disqualified from the tender process.

鈥淚nspections do not stop at the project tendering stage, however, and contractors who are appointed to work on World Cup projects are subject to ad-hoc inspections against our WWS for the duration of their contracts.鈥�