Construction firms have told Scrutiny that they are not seeing any States tenders hitting the marketplace

MINISTERS have been grilled over fears that the multi-million pound stimulus money is not getting to the construction industry fast enough.

The Corporate Services Scrutiny panel say builders have told them that they are still waiting for tenders to go out for States-backed jobs and that they had no work booked for after January.

But Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur and Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf have told the panel that the money is being targeted appropriately. Senator Ozouf added that it was in some firms’ interest to talk up their problems in the hope that the States would just tip money into the construction sector.

Panel chairman Sarah Ferguson said that builders had expressed serious concerns to them. She said: ‘In industries that are going to be hard hit, we are getting feedback that they are expecting to see tenders hitting the marketplace and they are sitting there and saying “where is the fiscal stimulus? No one’s telling us what is happening and we are not seeing any tenders coming up”.’