ONE cent in the dollar or around $3500 - that’s what one local contractor will receive from the $350,000 he is owed from a multi-million dollar defence project at HMAS Albatross.
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For more than a year Mark Nelson from Coordinated Logistics has fought to recoup funds lost when Canberra company Hewatt’s went into voluntary administration during the construction of $138 million maintenance and training facilities for the navy’s new Seahawk Romeo helicopters.
Mr Nelson is one of 30 local contractors owed between $3 and $5 million from the project.
They have now been told they may be receiving as little as one cent in the dollar they are owed.
Hewatt’s had been undertaking earthworks for Lend Lease, the lead contractor on the project. Mr Nelson’s company transported fill at the site.
Administrators PPB Advisory have told creditors the first dividend or payment to those owed money would total $212,535 of the net claim across all Hewatt’s operations of more than $21 million.
“$3500 is a kick in the guts but it is better than nothing,” Mr Nelson said.
He said it was a far cry from the original figure creditors were told of between four and 14 cents in the dollar.
“They revised that down as low as three cents. Now we are getting a cent,” he said.
“Shoalhaven subcontractors are left to carry the can after these businesses come and go.
“There have been plenty of other local projects in the past where local contractors have been burnt.
“It’s a lot for local companies to absorb.”
Mr Nelson said he had paid all his subcontractors, so he was wearing the loss.
Under the Deed of Company Agreement (DOCA), he said subcontractors were initially told they would receive a first payment four-and-a-half months after the administrators were appointed.
“That should have been the end of December last year and we are just getting it now,” he said.
“The second instalment was due mid-April and at the moment there is no clear indication when that will come through and at what value.”
Mr Nelson questioned ASIC’s role in monitoring the DOCA agreements.
“The proposal was Hewatt and his directors pay $700,000 to the administrators over two payments,” Mr Nelson said.
“Those have supposedly been made, yet we only get $212,000.
“The question has to be, why?”
He said the administrators had also put in a bill for three quarters of a million dollars.
“We just have to suck it up and bear the cost. I also still question Defence’s claim they have no obligation to the subcontractors over this non-payment,” he said.
“Nobody at government level or Defence seems interested in explaining the validity of the statuary declarations that all subcontractors have been paid all money due by Hewatt’s.”