I Wonder “Why”….

By Anthony Pellegrino

Imagine signing a contract with a contractor to build your house for $100,000 within ten months. You pay him 25% advance money. About a month into the project he complains that he needs an extra $10,000 because he found something wrong in the plans requiring extra money.

Five months later he comes asking for an additional $20,000 over the original price. He has another good reason. Sound fishy? By now you are committed to about $130,000 and still no house in sight.

At the end of ten months your house is half finished. You plead with the contractor but to no avail. He has excuses you are forced to accept if you want your house finished ever. Finally 16 months (six months late) you get your house at a final cost of $130,000. In the private sector this is rarely allowed. If a contractor fails to build a project within his bid price, he suffers the loss of civil action in court. Going beyond the agreed schedule, he is saddled with penalties. Would you tolerate it or ever use that contractor again?

I wonder “why” in the public sector many contractors are allowed the habit of underbidding projects. After receiving the projects, they request change orders causing the project to cost over budget. And always the excuse is that “certain irregularities” were found on the project warranting the change orders. Of course, this brings the price over what it should have cost originally. I wonder “why” this is allowed so often?

I wonder “why” projects are never finished on schedule? I asked several top officials who handle many projects if they could remember one or two government projects that were finished on budget and on schedule. They had a difficult time recalling even one! Of course, the practice has cost the government over the years of hundreds of projects millions of wasted dollars. I wonder “why”?

Almost all the contracts have a penalty clause for not meeting the construction schedule. I wonder “why” the contractors are never made to pay these penalties. They seem to be forgiven regardless that the project may be over six months delayed. Also why are contractors who do not complete a project allowed to walk away without a penalty even when they blatantly admit that they underbid the project. “Why” is that?

I wonder “why” every bid that is made on government projects ends up in a protest. Yet all bids are sealed when submitted and opened and evaluated by a committee. This seems quite fair up to this point. Yet when the winner is announced all the losers scream “foul” and protest the decision. Does something happen fro the opening of the bid to the awarding of the contract? Could someone be manipulating them? And, of course, the project is eternally delayed. I wonder “why” this happens so often?

I wonder “why” it takes anywhere from two to over five months for signatures for approval for a project thereby causing it to be delayed further. As the contract moves from office to office getting the signatures, it seems to lose momentum and interest.

I am just wonder “why”. Don’t you ever wonder “why” too? Does anyone really care?

Enjoy a laugh. Things could be worse.

A. Actual bumper stickers:

Crime wouldn’t pay if the government ran it.

Join the Army: Visit exotic places, meet interesting people and then kill them.

B. Actual written school excuses:

Dear School: Please excuse Blanche from jim today. She is administrating.

Please excuse Sara for being absent yesterday. She was sick and I had her shot.

Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had diah(*crossed out), diahoah(*crossed out), dyah(*crossed out) the shits.