Locked out of $850,000 school hall

Sophie Bungey and children Mostyn, 7, and Friffin, 5, outside Euchunga Primary School. Picture: Chris Mangan Source: The Advertiser

The 100-student Echunga Primary School, which has no covered area for assemblies, plays or other schoolwide activities, is the victim of a protracted dispute between builders and contractors.

A war of letters and demands for payment has begun between South Australia's Office of the Coordinator General, which manages Building the Education Revolution projects in public schools, the principal contractor, Matrix Building Group, and several subcontractors.

The school and its community had expected to be using the new facility in the second half of last year but the project is now stalled.

School council president Joanne Hayhurst said the community was "beyond anger" over the unexplained delay and parents and teachers were now just "throwing their hands in the air in disbelief".

Several sub-contractors who are yet to be paid have engaged lawyers - a situation that local Liberal MP Jamie Briggs described as "unconscionable".

With the multipurpose assembly hall now vacant because plumbing, electrical and landscaping work is yet to be completed, the school now has a facilities shortage because other buildings were demolished to make way for its construction.

Paving and landscaping subcontractor Phillip Rogers says he and other "subbies" are owed "thousands" for work completed months ago, and despite the funding coming from the public purse, no payments had been made. He condemned the way the BER scheme had been managed, given that one of its primary purposes was to inject money into communities via the education upgrades.

"There's no stimulus for me," he said. "It has certainly stimulated someone's pockets but not mine, even though I've done the work." He said the State Government should have ensured the principal contractor was "up to the task" when so much public money was involved.

Mr Rogers revealed his lawyers were attempting to retrieve $17,000 payable since he completed paving and landscaping work in July last year.

He said others were in a similar situation and many were critical of the way the principal contractor ran the construction.

Calls to Matrix Building Group were not returned.

Ms Hayhurst said many believed the job appeared to be disorganised.

"It seemed to us that things were getting done in a strange way and I did observe that the (new) paving was pulled up several times," she said.

Mr Briggs described the treatment of small business owners such Mr Rogers as grossly unfair. He said it was "typical of the mismanagement and waste" of the BER scheme.

"The Federal and State Labor Governments' utter failure to manage projects has left sub-contractors out of pocket and their businesses at risk," he said.

"It is unconscionable that decent, hard working small businesses are financially disadvantaged as a direct result of Labor's inability to implement a government spending program".

A spokesman for the SA Office of the Coordinator General said the Echunga project had ground to a halt but there was now some prospect of a resolution.

"Steps are being taken under the terms of the contract to remedy this situation and the contractor has now undertaken to complete the works by the end of March to enable the buildings to be occupied by the school," he said.

The spokesman said the terms of the BER program allowed for the job to be handed to another qualified builder if deemed necessary. While parents said the building would eventually be far superior to anything the school would otherwise have been able to afford, they said no work had taken place since December and questioned the $850,000 price tag.