Chch hospital contract canned

A man behind a firm contracted to work on Christchurch Hospital’s new acute services building says his business is ‘‘finished’’ after the contract was cancelled with two days’ notice.

Troy Lange, director of Grace Development 2008 Ltd, said the project had been plagued by delays.

Grace Development was contracted to install wall boards on three levels of the new building, which would provide services for patients needing to recover from surgery or short-term treatment for severe injuries, illness, or urgent medical conditions.

Lange said the company had completed about $850,000 of work.

Its contract was worth $3 million. Lange was sent an email from CPB Contractors on Saturday saying Grace Development’s access to the site had been revoked. In a meeting on Monday, the company’s contract was cancelled.

‘‘It’ll finish us. We will go into liquidation,’’ he said.

‘‘I have a young family, three young kids. I’m fighting for my family now – it’s just not right.’’

Lange said he had to lay off his five staff and tell his 20-or-so subcontractors ‘‘they’ve got no work’’.

‘‘They were pretty good about it, but I could hear in their voices they were wondering what they were going to do now.’’

CPB’s email to Grace cited quality, safety and resource issues as the reason for the contract cancellation.

The email said Grace workers were wearing short-sleeved shirts when long-sleeved were required.

CPB ignored Stuff’s repeated requests for comment.

Lange said Grace Developments should have already completed its assigned work, but ‘‘the engineers are not getting the mark-offs through to us quick enough.’’

Lange said Grace’s contractors’ and others were avoiding work at the site.

Stuff asked the CPB project manager who Lange reported to if engineer sign-offs were to blame for any potential project delays and what the project’s expected completion date was.

The project manager did not respond to emails or phone calls.

Ministry of Health critical projects director Michael Hundleby said he could not comment on the claims because it was a contractual matter between CPB and Grace Developments.

Delays for such a large project were not unusual and had been ‘‘factored into the planning’’, he said.

The Hospital Redevelopment Partnership Group was satisfied the project was on track for completion at the end of 2018.