Contractor clueless about project he had 'supposedly' worked on

The Dubai Criminal Court heard a case logged by a contractor against a consultancy company for including his company's name in a building license issued by Dubai Municipality for interior decor works.

The plaintiff, AI, 39, Iraqi complained that his company's name was mentioned in both the decor work license and the project completion certificate issued by Dubai Municipality at the time that his company did not have any relation with the project.

"The decor works license was issued in March 2013 and the completion certificate was issued five months later. I do not know how that happened. I did not apply for project license and completion certificate," he told investigators.

Records mentioned that the decor project was actually executed by a company other than the complainant. The Prosecution submitted to the court a contract signed between the other contractor and the owner of the restaurant represented by AA (fugitive).

The plaintiff learnt from Dubai Municipality that the owner of the restaurant AA logged a dispute with Dubai Municipality related to completion works of the project.

Engineer at Dubai Municipality explained that applications for building license are processed electronically. Each company registered with the municipality whether it was: consultancy, contractor, decor, or maintenance should have an ID and password. The application form is filled and submitted electronically.

"According to the rules, a consultant has the right to apply for a building license and to include the name of the contracting company that would execute the project. The applicant is responsible of informing the contractor whose name was mentioned in the application. I do not know if the consultant in this case had agreed with the contractor prior to submitting the application. He should have done that because the contractor should be made aware that a project been awarded to him prior to applying to the municipality for license," testified architecture from Dubai Municipality.

Before the issuance of project completion certificate, the civic body inspector, go to the site to check the compliance of the works with the plans that were endorsed by the municipality, said the engineer.
 
Should there were a dispute between the project owner and the contractor and the works were not finished, the owner of the project has the right to apply to the municipality for changing the contractor's name in the building license. This can be processed with or without the knowledge of the contractor, he explained.

However, the case records were void of such process been taken by the owner.

The municipality employee further explained that if the project was completed and there was a dispute between the owner and the contractor, the municipality may issue completion certificate to the owner without the knowledge of the contractor, but with the full legal responsibility and liability of the owner towards the contracting agreement between the owner and the contractor.
 
The prosecution accused MA, 30, Egyptian engineer, employee in the consultancy company of forging building license application and completion certificate that included the name of the plaintiff contracting company at the time that another contractor executed the project.

The building license application was submitted by him using his company's ID and password.

And the completion certificate was signed and submitted by him without the knowledge of the contractor whose name was included in the license and the certificate.
 
MA is also accused of forging the approval of the civil defense needed to be issued project competition certificate. He is also accused of using the forged documents (building license and Civil defense approval) to a municipality employee to be issued completion certificate.
 
The court will reconvene on April 1.

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