In the public realm

The Dubai Bypass Road is one of MPW's many successful infrastructure endeavours.

The UAE’s Ministry of Public Works (MPW) was established in 1972. Its mandate was to design and build projects for other ministries.

Since its establishment, the MPW has completed a range of projects, such as hospitals, housing communities, federal roads, dams, schools, police stations, fire stations and many others. It also maintains more than 3,500 government buildings through maintenance contracts. The MPW’s budget for the period 2011-2016 is about $1.63bn.

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“Today we can clearly observe strategic development all over the UAE. This development is largely related to the extraordinary efforts by the government contractors, consultants and all other entities who have made it possible to achieve all of our commitments during good as well as difficult times,” said HE Eng. Ibrahim Al Wahhabi, Assistant Undersecretary for Works Affairs, Ministry of Public Works.

Eng. Al Wahhabi delivered the keynote address at the CW Leaders in Construction Summit at the Armani Hotel in Dubai.

“Special emphasis has been given to environmental conservation through the development and implementation of green building standards, as well as the execution of environmental projects and initiatives,” said Eng. Al Wahhabi.

“The MPW gives particular attention to supporting its contractors and consultants with timely payments to sustain strong cash flow throughout its projects.” He added that the MPW ranked number one in 2009 and 2010 among other government ministries for achieving the strategic goals set by the ministers’ cabinet.

“While we continuously face different challenges throughout the lifecycle of our business, there are several pressing issues [encountered by the MPW] in dealing with our regular partners, contractors and consultants,” said Eng. Al Wahhabi.

“Our first concern is undeclared change in contractors resources and financial status, which forces them to submit disparate quotes to sustain their existence in the work market at any price.

This behavior becomes evident in different ways, substantially unrealistic bids, poor progress and cash flow later on, together with evident lack of funds, increased disputes and delays.

“Our second concern is the lack of engineering expertise, which used to be available to the major engineering design firms. However, these have shifted to more active and booming markets in and out of the region, leaving the local market with far less competent resources, affecting the output quality.

This can be seen in poor and under-estimated design work, substantial design errors, late delivery, internal disputes and construction delays,” said Eng. Al Wahhabi.

An audience member questioned how the dearth in contracting and consulting expertise could be addressed by companies looking to win MPW contracts. “Actually, in our dealings with consultants, it seems to be that people are being appointed who are not up to that high level. What can be done, I do not know. This is up to the consultant firms, and could maybe mean paying bigger salaries.”