The ACT government says it is working as quickly as possible to resume projects left unfinished as a result of the financial collapse of a company that worked on the controversial ASIO building.
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A cycleway in Weston Park, park and ride facilities at Calwell and Bruce and sewerage and other works at the Narrabundah long-stay caravan park have all been delayed as a result of Queanbeyan company Tread Lightly Earthmoving being placed into administration.
Yarralumla residents have complained, in particular, about the impact on users of Weston Park, sections of which have been off-limits to the public for several months due to a fence being in place since October last year with work on the cycleway now long overdue. Some have called for the fences to be pulled down until a new contractor is appointed.
A spokesman for the government's business unit, Shared Services Procurement, said it was trying to get work under way at Weston Park as soon as possible and had asked for three quotes from previous tenderers for the work. Contractors for the other work were close to being appointed or in the process of being appointed.
The spokesman said the loss of Tread Lightly was unfortunate. ''We would have liked them to have finished the projects, they were the preferred contractor, it would have been a good outcome for us and probably saved some time and probably a bit of money but the administrator decided they were in too deep a hole. It was a decision ultimately of the administrator,'' he said. Tread Lightly blamed its collapse on the demise of another firm, Urban Contractors, which owed it $816,000. Tread Lightly was a subcontractor to Urban Contractors, which went into administration last October, a move largely blamed on its involvement with the ASIO project.
Tread Lightly has also criticised its administrator, Kazar Slaven, for deciding not to allow the company to continue to trade.
An auction of the company's fixed assets including equipment took place at its former headquarters in Queanbeyan on Thursday.
Tread Lightly owes $2.147 million to its creditors.
A report by Kazar Slaven said upon its appointment in March it did allow Tread Lightly to continue trading to ''realise work in progress for the benefit of creditors generally''. That decision was based on financial information provided by the company.
The now liquidator said it became apparent on April 29 that ''continued trading was not possible as the revenue projections provided by the company failed to materialise'' so trading ceased on that day.
''We had lost confidence in the company's ability to deliver under its contractual obligations, exposing us to further personal liability which we were not prepared to accept,'' its report read.
Kazar Slaven noted that the failure of a significant debtor such as Urban Contractors would have a significant impact on cash flow for Tread Lightly but it also maintained the failure of Urban Contractors could not entirely explain the demise of Tread Lightly.
