ARARAT - Sub contractors owed money after the collapse of the Hopkins Correctional Centre expansion project have now been paid $7.8 million.
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The Commonwealth Bank and Bendigo Adelaide Bank entered a new Public Private Partnership with the State Government in August this year and are contracted to deliver the project by the end of 2014.
St Hilliers Ararat, part of the Ageis Consortium originally contracted to build the 350-bed expansion to the prison, which also included the Commonwealth Bank and other Australian and foreign owned companies and banks, went into liquidation in May.
This was followed by the Aegis Consortium being placed into voluntary administration in June, leaving around 400 people out of work and millions of dollars owed to sub contractors from both Ararat and further afield.
Following the announcement of the collapse of both St Hilliers and the Aegis Consortium, Ararat Rural City Council and the Ararat Regional Business Association, backed by the community, mounted a campaign to have all sub contractors paid and works restarted at the prison site, which when complete will provide an extra 150 jobs.
A spokesperson from Corrections Minister Andrew McIntosh's office this week confirmed that $7.8 million had been paid to 46 sub contractors to date.
Sixty three out of 77 claims lodged have now been assessed by the Commonwealth Bank.
"There will also be an announcement of a new builder, sooner rather than later, and we expect there to be some work started at the site before Christmas," the spokesperson said.
With the site vacant for months, initial work will involve a clean up of the site, with building works expected to commence in January.
In August when Mr McIntosh visited Ararat to announce that sub contractors would be paid by the Commonwealth Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Banks, he thanked the community and acknowledged the anguish experienced by the community.
"I can only express my profound gratitude to the council, to the people of Ararat and particularly the sub contractors, who I can only imagine the trauma they have gone through over the last few months because of the money they were owed through the former arrangement," Mr McIntosh said at the time.
"If there is any blame that can be laid it was the structure of the PPP... because of the structure where there was nobody in the equation guaranteeing delivery of this project, that's why these people have escaped liability under that arrangement."
