Funding constraints mean that the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will delay four of the eight healthcare contract awards it had planned to let this year, said Ashghal’s lead advisor for contracts and projects management Ahmad Ali al-Ansari speaking on 16 March at MEED’s Qatar Projects conference in Doha.

These contracts were to be awarded from Ashghal’s healthcare programme, whilst other programmes are also reportedly suffering slow downs.

Al-Ansari added that several programmes, including schools and roads, had been revised from five years to seven or eight years, whilst Ashghal’s healthcare programme had been extended to 10 years, due to economic pressures.

Ashghal’s four key programmes are the Expressway Programme, the Local Roads & Drainage Programme, the Inner Doha Re-sewerage Implementation Strategy (IDRIS) Programme, and, until recently, the Sharq Crossing Programme, which has now been transferred to the Ministry of Transport. In addition to these, Ashghal is working on buildings, stadiums, major health projects, educational projects, and intelligent transport solutions.

Asked if Ashghal had revised down its projections for contracts awarded by 2020 from the $40bn stated in 2015, Al-Ansari stated that “we are still following strategy to maintain our vision, but at the same time we’re thinking of modifying some projects. With that being said, we are trying to keep the same target, and we are hoping to deliver this target”.