News on 4 September 2000

Both BT and Carillion have denied reports in the construction press that the £500m Project Jaguar is in difficulties. A story in Construction News alleged that Carillion, which heads the winning consortium, has been asking for upfront payments of between £400,000 and £600,000 from contractors bidding to become Regional Service Providers under the Jaguar structure (see News story).

According to Construction News these payments are deterring bidders and Carillion is unlikely to find enough companies to take the lead partner role in all eight RSP.

A spokesman for BT told i-FM that the company was not aware of any problems and that since a contract had not yet been signed, it was really a matter for the consortium leader. Carillion says the story is incorrect but wanted to check the situation before commenting further.

A source close to the project said up-front payments were not an issue, the Jaguar contract was structured on a risk/reward basis and the investment required was no more than on a normal FM contract, certainly not on the scale reported by Construction News.

The consortium partners are 'shadowing' the existing operation in one region with an expected launch of the new structure in January. It is not clear that this date will be met and BT was unwilling to specify a timetable for the project.

Richard Byatt