Sparkies join BER compo chorus

A PEAK electricians' body has added its voice to criticism of the Barnett government's handling of the federal schools building program.

A PEAK electricians' body has added its voice to criticism of the Barnett government's handling of the federal schools building program, accusing it of failing to carry out due diligence on builders who later failed to pay their subcontractors.

Master Electricians Australia said yesterday the state's financial safeguards for Building the Education Revolution projects had not worked, and it called on the government to compensate subcontractors who had been left on the brink of bankruptcy.

Electricians, painters, landscapers and other subcontractors are due to meet West Australian Opposition Leader Mark McGowan on Thursday, when he plans to raise a grievance motion with Premier Colin Barnett.

Finance and Small Business Minister Simon O'Brien acknowledged some subcontractors had not been paid and repeated that seven builders had been referred to police for signing suspected fraudulent statutory declarations on BER jobs.

But he would not commit to any compensation and said the "strict pre-qualification process" for head contractors had never been a guarantee of payment.

Western Australia's office of Building Management and Works, which managed contracts for $1.26 billion worth of BER projects, required head contractors to sign statutory declarations saying they had paid their subcontractors.

But Master Electricians Australia state manager Tony Mancini said some builders had signed the forms despite not having made the payments, and then later collapsed leaving some subcontractors hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.

"A lot of our members have lost a lot of money," Mr Mancini said.

"This is a government-managed project and we believe due diligence wasn't followed because it appears the stat decs were not checked and monies which should have gone to subcontractors that went to builders were not passed down the line.

"The government has benefited from this building work. We want the government to get involved, we want the government to compensate subcontractors who have done the work in good faith."

One electrician, who did not want to be named, said he had been hit hard. "To me it's fraud. It can't keep going on like this . . . It's just a knock-on effect for everybody else."

Mr O'Brien said Building Management and Works received 5000 statutory declarations a year and only checked them if there was a complaint.

Labor's commerce spokeswoman Kate Doust said: "Whoever was tasked with the job of oversight should have been focused on making sure people were being paid."