Director's Construction Industry Experience

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Prior 1996 in Victoria: Licensed builder and site supervisor after completing carpentry apprenticeship working in the Melbourne CBD following education at GGS.

 

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Director's Contracts Dispute Experience

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Post 1996 in Queensland: Initially worked onsite as a Tier 1 structural subcontractor's quantity surveyor on a major Queensland Government Project formulated & submitted 3no. Subcontractors’ Charges totalling $7.7M for unpaid scope, variations and prolongation claims, the subject of litigation, evidenced on the Supreme Court's public records.

 

Following the Project's practical completion, then worked for 8 months within the subcontractor's legal consultant's Brisbane CBD offices for the Voluntary Administrator as the quantity surveyor claim consultant, supporting the litigation on behalf of the structural subcontractor until the negotiated settlement of the litigation in 1999 and completion of the Voluntary Administration. 

 

Thereafter, provided quantity surveyor consultancy to subcontractors, property owners, lease holders and developers including as a civil works site manager, previous developer and QBCC licensed builder undertaking residential construction, including Cost Analysis Reports for property owners for Litigation Support under the Domestic Building Contracts Act 2000 (Qld).  

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Director's Current Contracts Experience

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Since June 2014: Provided internal quantity surveyor consultancy to Tier 1  structural subcontractors & suppliers including Pragmatic Cognitive Work Analyses of their contractual claim chains from operations to tender, to workfaces, to contract administration to accounts, for payment received or recoverable.

 

Identifying Pre-Contract & Post Contract SWOT risk analyses provided within simple progressive Matrix Form Reports c/w solutions for clients considerations, all in relation to their following completed and future contract works:

 

Infrastructure Projects: Offshore Commonwealth Government facilities & Onshore Defence facilities. 

 

Industrial Projects & Civil Works: Rail workshops & light rail; Upgrades for fuel / centrifuge / pump stations; Water & sewage treatment plants; Tunnel Jet Fans; Bridge works; Electrical infrastructure; Brisbane Airport redevelopments and Manufacturing plant & facilities.

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Premium High Rises: New commercial offices / hotels / apartments / carpark including refurbishments & additions in the Brisbane CBD, Brisbane Airport, Greater Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.  

 

Health Facilities: New construction hospitals in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Northern NSW including helipads additions to existing hospitals in Sydney and Northern NSW.

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Commercial Shopping Centre Redevelopments: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Northern NSW.

 

Education Facilities: Queensland Government secondary & special schools and private sector schools & colleges.

 

Sporting Facilities: Sports stadiums, sports & leisure centres on the Gold Coast and Northern NSW including a shooting range in Brisbane.

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Current Adjudication Submissions Experience

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Since January 2015: Quantity surveyor consultancy inclusive of internal claims formulations and submissions for 2no. Standard (<$750k Excl. GST) and 1no. Complex (>$750k Excl. GST) Adjudication Applications as well as enforcements and Litigation Support following 2no. Adjudication Decisions.

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Current Barriers to Adjudication Submissions

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Having had "hands on" trade qualified site working experience together with quantity surveyor Adjudication Submissions and Registered Adjudicator experience, it is critical to have clear accurate timely documentation prior to accessing the workface and then efficiently completing the works c/w a valid payment claim for a profitable outcome.  

 

The reality now in the current 'Communications Age', is the recurring problems encountered by subcontractors, suppliers & other claimants of ever growing voluminous tendering & contractual documentation compliances, prior to and at the workface, including thereafter, together with the relentless daily communication trail via hard copy & electronic submission compliances.

 

Further compounded, by incurred offsetting of risks & responsibilities passed down the contractual chain via "Front End" legal consultant risk offset engineered "back to back" contracts, predominantly to the workface install subcontractor and / or supplier. However, the current Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld) passed on 26 October 2017 with new adjudication procedures commenced on 17 December 2018 will redress these unfair risks and provide fairness for subcontractors, suppliers & other claimants.   

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In the face of these ever mounting obstacles to a bona fide payment claim, the claimant has to ensure sufficient profitable payment cashflow for their business owners and employees entitlements.  

 

This is the primary object of the current Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld) & Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), by utilising the rights and obligations of adjudication.   

 

It is critical that a payment claim is properly supported from inception creation via operations scheduling resources, to the relevant workface records, back to contract administration for timely submission, and for payment to be received by accounts for the positive cashflow life of a business.  

 

Importantly for Adjudication Submissions, for properly supported relevant documented unpaid payment claims to be recovered at a minimal of time and cost impediments to the claimant's business operations. 

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Adjudication Consultancy Solutions

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The Roman Law maxim 'Ubi Jus Ibi Remedium’ –"Where there is a Right there is a Remedy" is foundational to Australian Common Law.  Therefore, initially a debtor needs to be dissuaded from non-payment as a preferable sound commercial decision, as opposed to having to respond to properly supported relevant documented Adjudication Submissions from a subcontractor, supplier or other claimant.

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Subsequently, the claimant must be armed with both a "strong shield" to fend off the ever increasing engineered offset losses from debtors, and with a "sharp sword" as a deterrent to strike balance for equitable consideration, if or when required.

 

My quantity surveyor Adjudication Consultancy offered Coefficiently with clients, is to enable them Pragmatic Proactive Solutions to counter non-payment risk and losses in the first instance, or otherwise to maximise then recover unpaid payment claims with properly made relevant support for Adjudication Submissions and Debt Recovery Negotiation.

 

Thereafter, to implement enforcements of Adjudicated Amounts, or alternatively as a last resort, providing timely economical Litigation Support to the client's legal consultants to expedite strategic debt recovery.

 

Above all, I Anthony Zarro – Director, offer the commitment to all clients as laid down enduringly by Winston S. Churchill to all quantity surveyors and adjudication consultants, as follows:   

THE CONTEMPORARY QUANTITY SURVEYOR'S ROLE IN AUSTRALIAN ADJUDICATION richly resonates from the Foreword for The Chartered Surveyor His Training & His Work published in the UK in 1932 by The Chartered Surveyors' Institution, written by the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill M.P.:  

 

"In a complicated and expanding civilisation such as ours the status and character of the learned or scientific professions become matters of great consequence.  The importance of high standards of technical efficiency is obvious: but even more important is that sense of professional honour and fidelity which springs from prolonged vocational training and a lively sense of corporate responsibility. . . . 

 

The term surveyor no doubt covers a wide range of practice, from the land agent, who may be responsible for the care of many thousands of acres of agricultural land and woodlands, through overlapping stages to the quantity surveyor, who accounts to us for the cost of the houses in which we live. . . .  

 

A love of justice and equity and a firm resolve to deal with every issue on its true merits without fear, favour or affection, are inseparable from the rightful discharge of a surveyor's duty.  Let us then hope that they will fortify themselves for their task by a strong and healthy esprit de corps so as to win for themselves an ever-increasing measure of the confidence of the public and the honour that comes from doing right things well." 

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"Respectfully", Winston S. Churchill's 1932 original 4 page Foreword (quoted in part above), has been renamed & reprinted twice in the USA as The Valuer and his Profession in the The Appraisal Journal (July 1966 pp. 326-328) & (March 2007 pp. 114-115) as an exemplary Valuer's role, albeit, excluding the full 27 page original booklet and without any Appraisal Institute reference to the book's Quantity Surveyor profession & Adjudication role. Contemporary Critical Review of  Reprints pursuant to s.41, s.41A & Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).