Parlon defended on 'fixed-price' lobbying

THE CONSTRUCTION Industry Federation has said its director general Tom Parlon did nothing improper in successfully lobbying the Government against the use of "fixed-price" contracts on selected building projects.

Mr Parlon, a former minister of state, lobbied Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan against using new fixed-price contracts in some 50 schemes from sewage works to roads and water supplies.

The projects had a cumulative value of some €150 million. In a number of cases project costs accelerated, a feature for which provision would not have been made if the newer fixed-price contracts had been used.

But the federation yesterday defended Mr Parlon's action, claiming an instant switch to the new contracts would have led to delays of up to 18 months, as new tendering processes would have had to be designed.

The federation said the contracts had been issued by local authorities, sometimes after eight to 10 years of preparation. They were issued after the instruction from Government to use new fixedprice contracts came into force.

Calls to Mr Parlon's office on the subject were deflected to the federation's director for tendering and contracting Don O'Sullivan.

Mr O'Sullivan said the contracts involved represented about a year's work and while the contractors did not want to wait that long for the work, the local authorities involved did not want to wait an extra year for completion. There was, he said, nothing improper in the lobbying.

He added that any issues of increased cost "uplift" had been investigated by the Comptroller and Auditor General and found to be mainly due to add-ons to the original specifications.