黑洞社区

Specialist contractors have urged business secretary Vince Cable to publish details of how the Construction Supply Chain Payment Charter will be monitored and enforced by the end of next month.

The payment charter, which was published by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) in April, commits signatories to ensuring their supply chain is paid within 60 days, and then within 45 days from June 2015 and 30 days from January 2018.

It also commits clients that sign up to stop holding retention payments.

But five months on Cable鈥檚 BIS department - which oversees the work of the CLC - has not launched mechanisms for monitoring enforcement of the charter, or penalties for those that sign up but do not comply to the requirements.

Yesterday the National Specialist Contractors鈥� Council (NSCC) published an open letter to Cable urging him to take action.

The letter said previous governments鈥� moves to improve payment in the industry had been harmed by a 鈥渓ack of monitoring and enforcement鈥� and this meant that 鈥渢o date neither the public sector nor the supply chain has realised the full benefit of the various commitments鈥�.

It urged Cable to 鈥渃onfirm鈥� all companies working on public sector projects would have to sign the charter and that 鈥渁ction will be taken where companies do not meet the commitments鈥�.

It also added that he should also 鈥減ublish a process for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the charter by signatories鈥�.

Speaking to 黑洞社区, chief executive of NSCC Suzannah Nichol said the process of agreeing monitoring mechanisms was 鈥減roving more difficult than anticipated鈥�.

She added: 鈥淎 lot of people are interested in the charter and making it happen but they can鈥檛 sign up to it without knowing what the implications of that are.鈥�

Nichol said: 鈥淥ur members are pushing them [minsters] on this and I would like to report back to them at the end of October what the monitoring and enforcement arrangements would be.鈥�

Rudi Klein, chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors鈥� (SEC) Group, backed the NSCC鈥檚 letter and said the charter鈥檚 success was fundamental to the government鈥檚 broader strategy for the sector.

He said: 鈥淎ll the grand targets and ambition that the government construction strategy for 2025 will deliver are dependent on cash flowing through the supply chain and this charter is the way that we are going to deliver an uninterrupted cash flow.鈥�

Klein said a 鈥渇ully resourced鈥� charter ombudsman was required to monitor compliance and take action where firms didn鈥檛 meet the charter鈥檚 requirements.

A spokesperson for BIS said the government believed that 鈥渇air and transparent payment practices鈥� were 鈥渆ssential for a strong, resilient and sustainable supply chain鈥�.

She added that Philip King, chief executive of the Institute of Credit Management, was 鈥渓eading the development of monitoring arrangements鈥� for the commitments made by signatories to the charter.