Government reiterates pro-retentions stance

The chief secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng has maintained the government's pro-retentions position in a series of letters to those MPs involved in the 'rid retentions' campaign - led by the Specialist Engineering Contractors (SEC) Group.

In his two page reply, obtained exclusively by CJ, Boateng failed to touch on recommendations made in the trade & industry select committee's report into retentions.

This includes a proposed 2007 deadline to phase out retention use across all government projects.

Boateng wrote that the focus should be on the industry "broadening confidence" across government departments by producing defect-free work.

He added that the government was "not convinced" that SEC Group's request for ring-fencing on retentions would add any real value but would require a "restructuring of the contractual acceptance mechanism at the sign-off stage".

A proposed staged retention release throughout the duration of the project was also rebuffed with Boateng writing that such a system "would create additional burden without effectively solving the problem".