Vendors and contractors who worked at the 2019 Kochi-Muziris Biennale claim to have not been paid in full for their work. Daily-wage labourers, ranging from masons to plumbers to fabricators, who worked independently have also come to the fore complaining that their wages have not been paid since December.
Many vendors are now expressing their anguish over Kochi Biennale Foundation’s (KBF) apparent inaction. Appu Thomas, director of Thomas Clery Infrastructures & Developers Pvt Ltd, told InUth,
“The works in Aspinwall House and Cabral Yard was done by us. After all the work and using all our facilities, they’re telling us they can only pay for only 50% of what we’ve done. They’re not telling any reason why. They’ve done an evaluation that is not at all acceptable to us.”
He added,
“After exhibiting the work to the entire world, now they’re telling that the charges what we asked for were exorbitant. That is not fair. We had given them the bill on the 20th of December. And 50% of the money that they’ve given us was spent to procure the materials and giving them whatever was possible.”
According to Thomas, KBF failed to pay for the vendors’ bills that amount to over Rs 77 lakh. The law firm representing Thomas and other vendors sent a legal notice over alleged non-payment of dues for structural works done at some of the venues.
In its response, KBF said that Thomas had “no right to comment or state” on KBF’s administrative practices and claimed that Thomas was running a “disinformation campaign”. The response also stated that Thomas had “no status other than following instructions for which he was more than amply compensated”. It further read,
“My client also requests you to advise and remind your client (Appu Thomas) that he is only a works facilitator, who has been entrusted with Biennale work and it is not within his rank or station to preach to the Trustees of KBF or to their representatives especially after enjoying their patronage.”
Thomas created an Instagram account profiling the work that the daily wage labourers carried out to make sure the Biennale was inaugurated on time.
“We’ve been telling these stories to KBF and they’ve been treating us as a joke. How long can we wait? In March we found that they’ve paid all the other vendors from other states, as well as expats. Why are they treating us like second-class citizens?”
In a statement put out on March 23, KBF says,
“In light of the disinformation campaign regarding non-payment of construction workers, the Kochi Biennale Foundation makes the following clarifications. The contractor and his vendors entrusted with the construction of the Biennale Pavilion at Cabral Yard have to-date been paid Rs 1,80,59,000. The payment of on-ground workers is the responsibility of the contractors. Since the final bills submitted by the contractor were considered exorbitant, the Foundation, in mutual agreement with the contractor, appointed an independent government-approved valuer to look into this. The report submitted by the valuer has found that the bills are greatly inflated, and that the amounts demanded by the contractor are arbitrary. This matter is now being pursued legally.”
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