China’s Suzhou Municipality Engineering Company Accused of fraud for bridge construction and biased the number of labourers

Cambodia News

Shuicheng Municipal Garden Engineering Company in China’s Suzhou municipality has been alleged by its sub-contractor of fraud for construction equipment standards and exaggerated the number of workers during the recent construction of a bridge in a new Wuzhong District of Suzhou municipality, resulting in deterioration of the bridge quality and cracks.

According to a report of the sub-contractor, Shuicheng Municipal Garden Engineering Company was contracted to build a road (B2) in Suzhou Wuzhong District of Suzhou municipality with the cost of 45 million yuan in January 13, 2014.

The report added that the contractor was only responsible for the labor fee, and the purchase of the construction equipment was shouldered by Shuicheng Municipal Garden Engineering while it was biasing the actual number of workers.

Based on the company’s contract, a bridge in part of the road must be required to use steel with the size of 16mm but in fact the company used only 9.1mm steel, causing the bridge to have about 2cm cracks. Under the management of the Shuicheng Company, the authority of Wuzhong District turned its blind eye to this problem and kept the information hidden to the higher authorities, the report said.

Shuicheng Municipal Garden Engineering Company, moreover, obtained the contract through a bidding with illegal means, leading the construction management process to be messy and the bridge pillars were not hit deeply, most of the steels are not long enough unlike stating in the contract, while the pillars at the middle section of the bridge was pressed with no standard, according to the report obtained by Cambodian News.

After the completion of the construction, an inspection was made and found that there are some problems with the construction, but Shuicheng Municipal Garden Engineering Company in Suzhou municipality put the blame on the sub-contractor who was just responsible for only labor fee, and the company pretended to be unknown, evaded responsibility, and chose a punishment on the sub-contractor in order to cheat the higher level authorities. It then refused to pay the remaining labor fee to the labourers.

Cambodian News could not reach Shuicheng Municipal Garden Engineering Company for comment, and Cambodia News will continue to contact the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia for the allegation if the embassy is aware of some information on the issue.

After a petition had been sent to Nanjing Provincial Transportation Department and with a strong suppression from the higher authorities, Wuzhong District Authority was forced to notify the bridge quality and sending a report to the Quality Inspection Department for checking.

The report also raised a question that “In general, piling and pressing bases are to prevent the road surface and the main material like quality steels must support a bridge, so if construction materials like steels and others are not qualified enough and reducing sizes and length of steels, how can a bridge be strong and secured?

“I hope that the company and the local authorities must sincerely respond on this to the public and do not damage the Chinese Government’s face and reputation as it can lose the Chinese people’s trust,” said the sub-contractor who asked not to be named.

The Chinese authorities have to solve the problem as early as possible with no tolerance and mutual protection for those who made fraud and cheating, and do not wait until the bridge collapsing and serious harming or losing lives of people who travel through the bridge, he went on.

Cambodia News would like publish the entire report of the sub-contractor in the Chinese language with the following content:
苏州市水城市政园林工程有限公司承建的苏州市吴中区太湖新城纵一路二标，于2014年1月13日顺利通过了验收，审定价在4600万左右。首先，此标段是水城市政公司通过非法途径取得的。其次，在施工过程中，工程全线段的打桩都没有打到位，除了应付检测单位的，其余都是短桩，中间一段本应打桩的也没打。再次，标段中一座价值500多万的桥梁所用钢材全部与合同不符，桥体已出现2CM左右的裂缝。不仅如此，在施工过程中，施工合同、图纸形同虚设，偷工减料、管理混乱，不按合同、图纸施工。吴中区政府和苏州市交通局在接到举报后的大半年左右时间里推诿扯皮，企图息事宁人。而且吴中区还默许水城公司雇佣黑道人员恐吓举报者及家人，后经举报人上访至南京省交通厅后，吴中区政府才迫于压力通知质检部门检测。经检测，桥梁工程合同规定应使用16MM的钢材，实际直径不到12MM，应使用12MM的，实则在9.1MM左右，而桥体纵向确有一条宽2CM左右的裂缝。针对打桩部分，吴中区政府在水城公司的工作人员带领下，对问题桩体视而不见，选择了之前通过检测的、为了应付检测准备的桩体再次检测，蒙混上级领导和举报者。而且在检测出问题桥梁后吴中区政府只是摆姿态、装样子，避重就轻的选择以罚了事。另外，吴中区政府为了应付上级领导还委托上海同济大学进行桥体检测，检测结果不出所料的完全符合标准，如果承建单位都能随意更改当初项目设计标准，且设计和实际使用差距甚大，经检测还能符合标准，那要当初的设计部门何用?众所周知，打桩是为了防止路面下沉，支撑桥体的主要材料是钢筋，钢材偷工减料，桥梁安全难道完全不受影响？问题工程从施工到验收合格如何能通过监管、检测、质检层层关卡。我希望政府能给广大市民一个真诚的交代，及早得解决好问题，而不是姑息养奸、互相包庇，非要等到桥塌了，路沉了，出人命了才意识到严重性，不要光顾着顾全政府的脸面，而失了民心的里子！