News and current information for our surety bond clients.
No more charges out of the second grand jury convened to investigate the near-bankruptcy of Pennsylvania’s capital city. But the 82-page report does make some recommendations for changing state law: Extend the statute of limitations of public officials in Pennsylvania. Law enforcement already gets extra time to charge public officials, but ambiguity arose during former Mayor Stephen Reed’s trial over …
When you’re looking at the relevance of surety in today’s market and how it competes, to do that we need professional surety producers who understand clients and surety and how to match them, and also have all the skills in underwriting and contract and financial analysis. But what’s missing a lot of the time is being just as professional on …
Executives in the construction sector named geopolitical instability and workforce management issues as the biggest challenges facing their industry, Willis Towers Watson P.L.C. said in a report released Wednesday. Geopolitical issues were the top threat overall, primarily due to uncertainty of government support and financing, postponement and delays, changes in strategy, and commitment to project pipelines, Willis Towers Watson said …
The state has effectively fired the contractor of the new Broughton Hospital. In a letter dated April 20 sent to Archer Western Contractors and Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. of America, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said the contractor has failed to resolve or cure six of the seven grounds for annulment the state laid out in …
“Obviously flawed.” “Ill-conceived.” “Problematic.” “Lack of transparency.” These are some of a Pennsylvania grand jury’s descriptions of Harrisburg’s incinerator deal debacle that cost the city upwards of $300 million and sent it spiraling toward insolvency. Much of it is laid at the doorstep of then-Mayor Stephen R. Reed, who made a practice of paying off old debt by borrowing anew. …
With less than a week before the federal government’s appropriated funding runs out, confidence in avoiding a potential shutdown is waning. Because of that, contractors should exercise prudence and immediately begin preparations for a potential shutdown. Read the full article >>>
The law of contract formation allows parties “freedom to contract” in most aspects of transactions, services and/or liabilities. In the area of construction law, general contractors have largely negotiated a shift in the distribution of risk away from the general contractor and to the subcontractor with the inclusion of “pay-if-paid” contractual clauses that make the general contractor’s receipt of payment …
A major shift in the construction industry as it has recovered from the Great Recession is increasingly complex building projects with shorter deadlines. The dynamic has created increased and novel risks. Since bonding is a crucial risk-management tool in construction, surety-bonds experts need to constantly keep their finger on the pulse of the industry. Based on sureties’ understanding of how …
U.S small businesses are brimming with confidence — and backing up their upbeat outlook with a burst of hiring and spending. Sixty-four percent of firms with 100 or fewer employees say their businesses are doing well, up from 61% in late 2015, according to an Allstate/USA TODAY survey of 2,790 such enterprises in mid-February. Tell me more >>>
The Chapter 11 reorganization filing of Westinghouse on March 29, 2017 has opened the Pandora’s Box on the contentious issue of Chinese investment in the US infrastructure under Trump Administration. The immediate cause behind the decision to place Westinghouse under bankruptcy filing by its parent company, Toshiba of Japan, was the cost overrun at four 3G (third generation) AP1000 reactors …
