Member of the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors Sahl Al Damrawi called on the government to quickly activate the prime minister’s decision to add six months as a grace period to the implementation period for the projects in force from March 2016 until December of the same year.
Al Damrawi added that the government has to alert the state administrative bodies not to slow down and delay until compensation is paid according to the Compensation Law that was approved and pending publication in Al-Waqaae Al-Masriya, the official newspaper.
Al Damrawi added that construction companies have been waiting for the payment of compensation for more than a year, and not one pound has been disbursed so far. Many of the companies have been exposed to bankruptcy and exited the market.
“If the compensation isn’t paid, it would increase companies’ bankruptcy at high rates, and many of them have been forced to lay off large numbers of workers because of their inability to pay salaries, in addition to the huge loss from the increase in the prices of raw material with the stability of the contract value,” he noted.
He explained that many companies had to sell their properties to cover the expenses. This led to the bankruptcy of more than 2,000 companies.
In early May, contracting companies submitted a petition to Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to intervene to save the Egyptian construction companies from layoffs and bankruptcy by issuing a cabinet decision to extend the duration of projects during 2016 for six months, starting with the announcement of the Compensation Law in Al-Waqaae Al-Masriya.
