Government projects at the Canberra Hospital, and going back to the Gungahlin College construction in 2011, are bogged down in acrimony between Shared Services Procurement and subcontractors.

A Master Builders Association ACT on-line survey has found prompt payments the most critical issue in a sector running out of big projects and reeling from business failures.

MBA spokesman Jerry Howard said responses from 300 contractors, most with annual turnovers of less than a million dollars, indicated a strong depth of feeling among members.

The survey found 57 per cent agreed non-payments or late payments were creating severe cash flow problems.

"The Government must set an example in resolving disputes quickly," Mr Howard said. "Situations like these should not fester, they should not have to resort to complex legal proceedings."

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union ACT secretary Dean Hall said subcontractors on the new regional cancer centre site had asked the union to help get paid.

“This is when you get people going under, simply because of cash flow.

“Canberra is a big country town and the building industry in Canberra is a close-knit, small group of contractors operating like they do in a country town, but building nationally significant projects sometimes, like ASIO buildings etc.

"So when you get Kell and Rigby going under, St Hilliers going under, Ply going under, contractor disputes at ASIO, and at Iqon (superintendent firm at the new cancer centre), it is not unusual if you are a subbie, you might have been on 75 per cent of those five jobs.

"You are getting compounding whammies. You see people having to re-mortgage their houses.

"It is putting subbies who are the heart and soul of the building industry in Canberra, who do 99.95 of the work in Canberra on construction sites, under pressure.

"These people employ the vast majority of workers in the industry, they're the engine of it all, and they're being placed under a hell of a lot of pressure.

"You would hope the ACT Government would step in to prevent mass layoffs and instability."

Commerce and Works directorate director general Megan Smithies said some contractors on the cancer centre site hadn't finished work on time.

"Under the contract we are able to withhold payments as liquidated damages if we believe there's a reason to apply liquidated damages.

"Yes there are disputes and they ought to be going through the normal dispute mechanism."

But a roofing subcontractor owed a substantial debt from the $73 million Gungahlin College project is fed up with years of protracted arbitration. He is taking the case to the Federal Court.

Subcontractors at the cancer centre site are threatening not to certify their work, while others have engaged barristers to recover payments.

Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said the turmoil was indicative of most of the health projects.

Although the Government across the board was not good at delivering infrastructure there seemed to be a particular problem within ACT Health.

Comments from the Master Builders ACT on-line survey:

‘‘They normally use the final payment as a bargaining tool for the next job. i.e. ‘‘I can’t pay at the moment but once we get into the next job you will be paid.’’

‘‘I have found the builders are making any excuse possible to pay on time. All the paper work we have to fill in now is to make sure we have missed something so they don’t pay until it gets sorted from my side or theirs.’’