The ACT government is understood to have made preparations this week to use security guards to take control of a school building site in the city's north when it first heard of property giant St Hilliers going into administration.
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St Hilliers has a $30 million contract to oversee the construction of the $70 million Bonner Primary School in Gungahlin. It is the biggest project under construction in the ACT by the building arm of St Hilliers.
A government spokesman confirmed that security guards were dispatched on Tuesday night, but said the move was simply a precaution. The government is under pressure to guarantee wages and payments of hundreds of construction workers in the ACT after St Hilliers' liquidation yesterday. And the Education Department is scrambling to get workers back onto the site of the Bonner school, which is due to take its first students in February next year. Failure to complete the school on time would put serious strain on the education system in the city's northern suburbs, where schools are either full or approaching capacity.
St Hilliers is also in the process of finishing the $79 million Harrison school, also in Gungahlin, that began taking students this year. It is also involved in a Phillip site for a $7 million ''intentional community'', which is meant to mix disability and social housing.
In putting itself into administration, St Hilliers, which is also carrying out several large Commonwealth projects around the country, cited a $150 million cost blowout on a Victorian prison construction job.
The company said administrators Moore Stephens Corporate Recovery would be ''seeking to complete viable projects once they assess the position of each of the projects,'' and the ACT government has been told that both Bonner and Phillip are regarded as viable projects.
Pressure was also mounting late yesterday from the ALP-affiliated construction workers union, with CFMEU branch secretary Dean Hall saying the government should act as a ''model client'' and step in to guarantee any money owed to employees and subcontractors for these projects.
''We are in talks with the government and we've made our position clear that we believe that workers shouldn't be the ones who suffer when these things happen,'' Mr Hall said. ''So we'll be asking them for guarantees to protect workers' entitlements.''
Economic Development Minister Andrew Barr said the government was concerned about the impact the administration move would have on workers and subcontractors in Canberra.
He said the government would be prepared to finish the project using a new contractor if administrators do not move quickly enough.
''Wherever possible the government will ensure that the same contractors are re-engaged on each project.
''This will give workers continuity of employment, and help ensure the project is completed with as little delay as possible,'' Mr Barr said.
The company said it was forced to call in the administrators after failing to strike a deal for additional funding of $150 million for the troubled Ararat prison, which it is building for the Victorian government.
St Hilliers group executive chairman Tim Casey could not be contacted yesterday, but said in a statement issued through a public relations agency that the outcome was ''regrettable … We have over a number of months explored and exhausted all possible avenues to recapitalise the construction business and find a solution to the significant cost and time overruns on the Ararat project.''
