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by Corinthian 1776 days ago
I live in Qatar, and the Qataris are notorious for finding ways to avoid paying their bills, delaying payment for extremely long periods, or asking for unreasonable reductions. Claiming something is wrong or faulty is a common tactic, another one is to substantially expand the scope of a project, and then refuse to pay when the project inevitably runs over the original deadline.

Akbar Al Baker pulled similar cons with the construction of Doha airport, demanding the project be accelerated but refusing to pay for the extra work that would be involved. Bechtel and Lindner/ Depa Interiors are two companies that spring to mind. They also suffered due to the erratic and insanely inefficient bureaucracy that is endemic in Qatar - 60-70% of Qataris "Work" in government jobs.

Similar stories can be heard of tower construction in Qatar. Empty and unfinished towers littler the country due the Qataris failing to pay their dues to construction companies. This article superficially covers it: https://www.constructionweekonline.com/business/article-3775...

1 comments

Will be interesting to see if the pill the world cup off next year with this style of bullshit.
You don't know the half of it. When they held the Asian cup, they were so concerned with the stadiums looking empty, they forced laborers to go and fill the seats. Problem is that many legitimate ticket holders were then denied entry! Of course people got angry about that, so the police saw fit to start administering beatings to people.

Now image that scenario with drunken football hooligans instead!

The pill -> they pull. Hard enough with alcohol in the shithole never mind pills ;)