Nicholas Pandey has been elected as the president of the Federation of Nepal Construction Entrepreneurs at the 26th General Assembly and 13th General Convention. A new 51-member working committee has been elected from the general convention. He was also in the election competition for leadership at the 12th General Convention. Pandey has reached the leadership of the organization as a young man. In a situation where the trust and confidence of the general public towards construction entrepreneurs has been waning for some time, how will he work to protect its reputation? Kantipur's Bimal Khatiwada had a brief conversation with Pandey: You have been elected as the president, how will you grow the organization now?

The way the organization is running, it needs to undergo a comprehensive restructuring in the current situation. The federation is mostly concerned with technical matters. There are also many complaints that construction took too long and the quality of work was poor. There is not a single engineer working as an employee in the Federation office yet. That is why there is a plan to open a technical branch in the Federation. Where the engineers will be based. There are also small construction entrepreneurs under the Federation. They may not know their rights under the contract and may not know their knowledge of contracts. They should not call us contractors. Since they only do construction work, they should be called construction entrepreneurs. It is just a story. In the future, even if it is not their fault, they may not know what compensation they will receive from the office or project. In such a situation, the Federation will form an engineering team to provide technical assistance. There will be direct coordination in the provinces and districts. Gradually, this technical consultancy service will be started from the provinces and district branches. There are also entrepreneurs who do work worth 5/6 lakh rupees in the construction sector. This will be effective for them.

The general public's perception of construction entrepreneurs is a bit negative, how do you improve it? 

Recently, the word 'contractor' has been made into a derogatory term . The main thing is to inform the media personnel who are writing news about the construction sector about how to make our business and profession respected, in the presence of technical experts . We will take the initiative to make the laws and regulations that are hindering construction and not being able to complete work on time from construction entrepreneurs construction-friendly. We will solve the problems seen in the construction sector. After that, it is expected that the general public's attitude towards construction entrepreneurs will gradually change. Even though construction entrepreneurs do not complete work on time, contracts have become invalid, what needs to be done about it? The biggest problem now is in invalid contracts. There are such contracts, which cannot be closed due to legal obstacles, nor can another contract be awarded. There are also contracts with 90 percent work completed. The term of which has expired, the term has not been extended. For this, a bank guarantee is required, which the bank does not give. There are such contracts that are 12-14 years old, for which the bank does not even agree to give a guarantee. Not only this, it must also be insured for that period. Insurance companies do not agree to provide such insurance. Let's move forward with the contract that will be completed when the deadline is extended. The word 'contractor' itself is not bad.  But it has been turned into a derogatory term.  The word contractor is not bad, but those involved in construction are also called contractors, milk, electricity suppliers, etc. . A contract is a contract . It's just that we were not called contractors . There is no objection to the word . It's just that we should be called construction entrepreneurs because we only do construction work .

If the contract is not completed even after the deadline is extended, we must terminate the contract. If the construction contractor makes a mistake, we must impose 10 percent damages as per the contract agreement.

Again, in the case of contracts that have not been completed even after 50-60 percent progress, if it is possible to extend the deadline and work on it, it is better to do so. Even if the deadline is extended, we must terminate the contract that is not completed. That too can be terminated in two ways. The construction contractor is not at fault, but if he makes a mistake, we must impose 10 percent damages as per the contract agreement. We cannot impose more damages than this. How much is one/two years? Let's punish him by blacklisting him. But if he was not able to go to the site and do the work, if the time has just expired, we should apologize to him, thank him and resolve the contract. Low bids also make contracts unhealthy. Similarly, there is also a problem with local authorities issuing permits for haphazard construction. Strict measures are needed to discourage such activities. If this is done, the number of unhealthy contracts will also decrease.

What are the expectations of construction entrepreneurs from the current government?

Price adjustment should be mandatory for small contracts. Although it is implemented in large contracts, it is not in small ones. It is said that if the price of any construction material increases by more than 15 percent, its price will be adjusted. Due to the current conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran, the price of bitumen, petrol/diesel used in construction has increased.

The government has decided to amend the Procurement Act within 30 days. This is a welcome development.

If the price increases immediately after taking the contract, it becomes difficult for them to work. Therefore, the price adjustment should be given no matter how many months the contract was signed. The current situation is also similar. Small construction entrepreneurs are being affected by this. The government should pay attention to this. The government has decided to amend the Procurement Act within 30 days. This is a welcome thing. The Procurement Act and Regulations should be made timely. The procurement process is lengthy. It is necessary to make it faster and shorter. First of all, it is necessary to open and evaluate the financial proposal instead of evaluating the technical proposal. If the act and law are made construction-friendly, many problems in this sector will be solved.