The Federation of Industry has complained that the Water Services Corporation (WSC) has, in some cases, taken 18 months to pay its trenching contractors.

"Contractors are well aware that they have to finance the costs of the contracts they undertake through their own internal resources. However they then have every right to be paid once the works are completed to specifications. Every day they remain unpaid means that they incur extra overdraft costs that that they can ill afford," the FOI said.

The FOI said there had even been cases where the Water Services Corporation quantity surveyor had not measured and quantified works done several months earlier.

"The federation believes that, just as the Water Services Corporation has every right to expect timeliness and professionalism from its contractors, the contractors have every right to expect the same qualities from the corporation itself," the federation said.