Research report on the problem of arrears in the construction sector

The problem of defaulting on construction funds in the construction market has been in existence for a long time. In recent years, it has become increasingly fierce. The spread of this problem has not only seriously affected the smooth implementation of the construction of the project, but also undermined the social and economic order, worsened the social quota environment, and caused the enterprises to default on the wages of farmers. Intensified, affecting the stability of society. This issue has attracted the attention of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. In November 2003, the State Council launched a large-scale special campaign to clean up the arrears of construction and wages for migrant workers in the construction sector. According to the arrangement and deployment of the superiors, the XXX region also carried out work across the region and achieved phased results. The regional construction market tends to be standardized. At the same time as the work was carried out, the regional construction department conducted a survey on the arrears of engineering funds in eight counties and one city in the whole region, and obtained detailed information and specific information.
I. Basic information on the arrears of construction funds in the regional construction sector
The arrears of construction in the construction sector means that the contractor did not pay the construction enterprise for the construction enterprise according to the contract, including the progress payment of the project and the construction payment after the completion of the project.
After investigation, as of June 30, 2004, the total amount of construction arrears in the region reached 156.7 million yuan, and the wages of migrant workers before 2003 were 2.449 million yuan. Among them, XXX City is 27,680,500 yuan, Kuche County is 4,282.03 million yuan, Baicheng County is 22.299 million yuan, Xinhe County is 8,800,600 yuan, Shaya County is 630,000 yuan, Wensu County is 10.735 million yuan, and Awati County is 7,630,800 yuan. , Wushi County was 3,712,100 yuan, Keping County was 3.51 million yuan, and the direct unit was 28.992 million yuan. Through investigations, we found that in recent years, the arrears of construction projects have the following characteristics:
1. The amount of arrears of construction funds has increased year by year, and many construction projects have been delayed for a long time. The most prominent is the real estate development project. Many companies have become deadlocks because of the long delay in engineering. Seriously affected the development of the enterprise.
2. The problem of government investment projects defaulting on construction funds is quite prominent. The main performance is that many government departments have to construct or arbitrarily change the design without expanding the funds, and expand the scale of construction, resulting in insufficient funds to form arrears.
3. The debt chain has lengthened and formed a large number of “triangular debts”. At present, on the one hand, the construction contractor is heavily in arrears, and on the other hand, the construction contractor is in arrears with the subcontracted enterprise, the purchase of materials and equipment suppliers, the wages of migrant workers and national taxes, and banks. loan. The emergence of a large number of "triangular debts" has triggered long-term debt disputes, which has caused great distortions in the social quota relationship. It has also concealed the problem of blind construction due to insufficient construction funds and undermined the normal social and economic order.
4. A large number of arrears of wages owed to farmers, causing incidents such as group gatherings and petitions. In recent years, the number of mass appeals caused by the arrears of construction funds and the arrears of wages of farmers have increased year by year. The reason is that a small number of enterprises and contractors are in arrears or deductions, and more because many companies are unable to pay due to serious arrears in construction costs.
5. Seriously affected the reform and development of the construction industry, and at the same time buried hidden dangers for the quality of the project. Many companies report that due to the large amount of project payments. It can only rely on increasing loan organization to produce, the company bears heavy loan interest, making the company's capital turnover difficult, seriously affecting the renewal of production equipment and technological progress, and causing a large loss of enterprise backbone technical personnel. At the same time, some construction enterprises have subcontracted the engineering layers to enterprises with lower technical management standards and even contractors. As a result, they cut corners in the construction of the project, which greatly reduced the quality of the project and even left a safety hazard.
2. Analysis of the reasons for the arrears of construction
The imbalance between supply and demand in the construction market is the direct cause of the problem of project default
At present, there are 55 enterprises with various grades of qualifications in the region. In addition, the construction market is open, and construction companies across the country can enter the regional construction market. The competition in the construction industry is fierce. Many construction units, for their own interests, use the construction market to have more competitive opportunities and require construction companies to invest in construction. That is to say, if the owner does not give advance payment, the construction enterprise is required to bring the construction to a certain level, or the construction enterprise is required to pay a certain amount of the project mortgage before the project starts, and then pay the construction cost. Now, the capital has become an important way and means for project leaders to reduce capital costs, pass on operational risks, and extract profits from construction companies. Many owners require construction companies to fund construction even if the project funds are sufficient. Therefore, the fund has actually become a prerequisite for many construction companies to undertake projects and an unavoidable business “trap”.
The imperfect social quota system is the root cause of the project default.
Due to the insufficient development of China's market economy, the development of the quota economy is relatively late, and the market quota trading is not developed. Both enterprises and consumers are generally lacking the quota awareness and quota morality under the conditions of modern market economy, plus the national quota management system. Imperfect, related laws and regulations and untrustworthy punishment mechanisms are not perfect, leading to the prevalence of social quotas, which is reflected in the construction field, which further exacerbates the problem of arrears in construction funds.
1. A considerable number of enterprises are indifferent in their sense of quota, and the trend of “arrears are reasonable and beneficial” is prevalent. Due to the imperfect laws and regulations of the market economy, the business operations between enterprises are not effectively supervised and constrained, and the order of market transactions is so chaotic that some enterprises regard the arrears of loans as a means of management and the way of making money, and some enterprises treat the arrears as disguised. The channels for raising funds do not talk about quotas and do not keep the contract.
2. The legal system is not perfect and the system is unreasonable. At present, the lack of a large amount of quotas in the society is often because the trustworthy people have not received the benefits they deserve and have not been correspondingly encouraged; the untrustworthers have received undue gains and even huge profits, and have not been condemned as they should. And punishment. According to the construction company, some local governments secretly encourage such behavior for local interests. In this way, when the loss of trust is profitable, the enterprise or individual will unconsciously tend to lose faith. In some places, "untrustworthy upstarts" are even called "enable people."
3. Most enterprises, especially construction enterprises, lack the awareness of risk prevention. Many companies often go into a misunderstanding, that is, to undertake the project as the first task, because it is impossible to examine the degree of the customer's quota, nor can it be monitored for the amount of it.
4. Lack of influential quota monitoring agencies. In China's economic life, the weak sense of the economic entity's quota is closely related to the low transparency of China's quota information.
Third, on the solution to the arrears of construction funds and measures recommended
The arrears of construction funds have become a major problem in the current engineering construction field, seriously undermining the economic order and affecting social stability, and must be highly valued by governments at all levels and relevant departments. We should combine the work of rectifying and standardizing the market economic order, adopting legal, economic and necessary administrative means, combining palliative and remedy, and implementing comprehensive rectification.
Take effective measures to focus on solving the problem of arrears in construction projects by real estate development enterprises and government investment projects
For the real estate development enterprises and government investment projects that are most prominent in the current arrears, the following remediation measures should be taken:
1. For projects developed and constructed by real estate enterprises, it shall be stipulated that the owner's project payment guarantee must be implemented. Anyone who fails to pay the project payment in accordance with the contract shall be paid by the guarantor on his behalf, but the guarantor may require the real estate enterprise to provide counter-guarantee according to law; Companies should also provide performance and guarantees. For real estate development projects that do not provide these two guarantees, the construction administrative department will not issue a construction permit. Where the development and construction project has been in arrears, the project for its new development and construction will not be approved, and the construction permit shall not be issued, and the bank will not grant loans. For real estate development enterprises that violate the contractual agreement and default on the construction project, they should be downgraded in the annual qualification examination, and the reasons for the downgrade should be announced to the public through the media. If the circumstances are serious, the qualification certificate must be issued.
For government investment projects, we must emphasize the ability to build. All counties and units are required to reasonably determine the scale of debt construction according to the financial situation, establish an effective debt repayment mechanism, and prohibit the transfer of the risk of insufficient funds by way of arrears of construction funds. At the same time, a comprehensive clean-up of the arrears of government investment projects should be carried out. For the arrears of government projects that have already been formed, the local government or department should combine its own financial resources and make annual financial balances and financing projects through annual budget arrangements. Amounts and their income, various policy charges, etc., are allocated a certain proportion of special items for the settlement of debts. The problem of government investment in arrears of construction payments within three years is resolved. Anyone who fails to solve the problem within the time limit will not be approved except for very special items. It added new government investment projects.
At the same time, it is necessary to deepen the reform of government investment project management methods and improve the effective supervision mechanism for government investment projects. It should be stipulated that in addition to the approval of the current approval procedures and licensing rights, future government investment projects must be submitted to the corresponding people's congress for final approval and supervision. For the construction and implementation of government investment projects, it should be properly separated according to "investment, construction, supervision, use", separate and implement the principle of specialized management, establish an effective power restriction mechanism, and strictly regulate the construction of government investment projects. run.
In order to fully implement government procurement funds in government investment projects and direct financial allocation, the financial department shall directly pay the construction enterprises to the winning construction enterprises in accordance with the contract. At the same time, it is necessary to study and formulate the tender texts and contract texts dedicated to government investment projects, and strictly follow them.
Promptly resolve contract disputes and give full play to the role of project supervision units and contract arbitration institutions.
The arrears of some engineering projects are often intertwined with disputes such as quality and duration. To this end, the project supervision unit must perform its own duties in accordance with the law, and supervise the contractor's construction quality, construction period and construction fund use in accordance with laws, administrative regulations and relevant technical standards, design files and project contracting contracts. At the same time, to further improve the arbitration mechanism, the relevant arbitration institutions should enrich the professionals and attach importance to the role of the project supervision, quality inspection, quality supervision, cost consulting and other institutions in the arbitration process, and disputes over the arrears of construction projects according to the application of the parties. Make a scientific ruling.
The supervision of the departments of planning, construction, banking, etc. should be improved and improved, and linkage law enforcement should be implemented.
For projects that do not implement capital construction, the planning department will not approve the project, and the construction administrative department will not issue the construction permit; if the completed project fails to settle the construction project according to the contract, the new project planning department will not If the project is approved, the construction administrative department shall not issue the planning permission or construction permit, and the bank shall not grant the loan; for the completion project that fails to settle the construction payment according to the contract, it shall be the contents of the unfinished contract, and the construction department shall not confirm the acceptance according to law. If it is qualified, the construction administrative department or other relevant departments shall, when handling the completion acceptance record, be ordered to stop using it and reorganize the completion acceptance. For real estate projects, the registration of ownership is not allowed; for projects with loan construction, the bank should strengthen supervision over the use of funds. If the project payment is not paid in accordance with the contract, the bank should list it as a unit with a bad amount. Restrictions apply when new loans are applied.
Further enhance the company's engineering risk prevention awareness and self-protection ability.
Construction enterprises must, in accordance with the requirements of establishing a modern enterprise system, accelerate the pace of enterprise reform, transform the business operation mechanism, and continuously enhance their competitiveness and engineering risk prevention awareness in market competition. Construction enterprises should conduct adequate project project risk assessment when contracting projects, and do not blindly contract projects that are not implemented or may not be implemented. To enhance the contract management capability, when signing the contract, refer to the "Demonstration Text of Construction Project Contract" jointly issued by the Ministry of Construction and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in December 1999, and specify the program for the payment of the progress payment and completion settlement in the contract. , time limit, method, and handling of disputes and liability for breach of contract. We must dare to use the "Contract Law" to protect our own legitimate rights and interests, and we must strengthen the management of project quality, construction period, etc., to prevent the arrears of construction costs due to disputes such as quality and construction period.
Establish and improve the social quota constraint mechanism, attach importance to the industry association's industry self-discipline and maintain the company's rights and interests.
In addition to real estate development projects to enforce the owner's project payment guarantee and contractor performance guarantee and contractor subcontracting project payment guarantee, it should also stipulate that if the owner requires the contractor to provide performance guarantee, the owner should also provide the contractor with Project payment guarantee.
Industry associations in the construction industry should give full play to the self-discipline role of the industry in unfair competition and even vicious competition in the industry, and guide enterprises to consciously resist the unreasonable requirements of the owners and help and organize the enterprises to pay off their debts. For the owners of serious malicious defaults and unfair competition, the construction enterprises that have signed the "Yin and Yang Contract" must establish corresponding quota files and publicly expose their bad behaviors to the public.
While solving the arrears of construction funds, we must pay attention to solving the problem of wage arrears for migrant workers.
There are two problems related to the arrears of construction and the arrears of wages for migrant workers. While resolving the arrears of construction, it is necessary to crack down on illegal acts of malicious arrears and deduction of the wages of migrant workers. Anyone who defaults on the construction enterprise's construction funds, causing the construction enterprise to fail to pay the wages of migrant workers on time, must seriously investigate the responsibility of the owners; where the construction enterprises default on the wages of migrant workers, they must seriously investigate the responsibility of the construction enterprises.
It is necessary to further implement the contractual subcontracting project payment guarantee. Where the subcontracting project of a construction enterprise fails to pay the subcontracting enterprise payment according to the contract, the guarantor shall be responsible for payment, but the guarantor may require the construction enterprise to provide counter-guarantee according to law, and at the same time implement the joint liability system for the subcontracting enterprise wage payment.
Where the subcontracting enterprise defaults on the wages of migrant workers, the general contracting enterprise shall be responsible for directly paying the wages to the migrant workers belonging to the subcontracted enterprise, and the required amount shall be deducted from the subcontracted project. It is necessary to vigorously develop into a labor service enterprise, strictly manage the access to the construction market, standardize the operation of labor service enterprises, and prohibit the contractor of non-labor enterprises from undertaking projects or subcontracting projects. It is necessary to strictly implement the labor contract system, and employers who do not sign labor contracts with migrant workers must deal with them according to law.
Further improve the legal system and increase the punishment for breach of contract and dishonesty.
In order to standardize the operation of the regional construction market and solve outstanding problems such as arrears of construction projects, the region has promulgated the “Interim Provisions on Strengthening the Management of Investment Scale of Construction Projects in XXX Area” and “Interim Provisions on Preventing Arrears of Construction Payments and Arrears of Labor Wages in XXX Areas”. Two regulatory documents such as the Regulations. While increasing the implementation of the two files, the relevant departments will further strengthen the implementation of the Construction Law, the Tendering and Bidding Law, and the Contract Law, and strengthen the standardized management of the construction market behavior of all parties involved in the project construction, including For project contracting, market access and clearing, payment for engineering funds and other contract management, and severe penalties for violations. It really causes the untrustworthy to be severely punished by the law and promotes the standard operation of the regional construction market in the track of legalization.
The arrears of construction funds is a complicated issue. It requires all aspects of society and the cooperation and cooperation of various functional departments to prevent the occurrence and deterioration of similar problems from the root causes. This paper analyzes this issue only from the perspective of the construction department, and further research is still to be carried out.