Abu Dhabi cleaners trapped for four hours before plunging to death

ABU DHABI // Two window cleaners were trapped on a maintenance cradle 15 floors above Khalifa Street for four hours before it collapsed, killing them both.

A technician was called to the scene on Tuesday morning when the motor controlling the cradle malfunctioned. The two men plunged to the ground about 3pm when the metal cradle cords gave way at roof level.

Their employer "should have called Civil Defence when they called the technician and recognised there was a problem. Those men should never have been up there so long," municipality health and safety chief Abdulaziz Zurub said. Police said the incident had been referred to the courts.

Mr Zurub said cleaning companies usually rent their cradles from maintenance companies. The municipality's health and safety department set up a special section to oversee maintenance companies but it is still under development.

"The problem is how to ensure the cleaning company selects a maintenance company that uses the safety equipment according to our procedures," Mr Zurub said.

The cleaners' employer, Modern Building Maintenance, said the men were harnessed but could not say if they were harnessed independently to the building. This lifeline is required so that if the cradle falls, the men do not.

When the safety system is intact, cradles can hang from one rope. Various bodies are responsible for cradle maintenance and operation.

The cradle was provided by the building owner, and the cleaners' employer said it did not know when it was last inspected.

Abu Dhabi Municipality approves third-party companies who provide certifications of inspection on equipment for maintenance companies. The equipment must be checked every six months or annually, depending on its type.

Cradle makers recommend inspections every three months.

"It's like maintaining your car," said Theo Van Der Linde, the operations manager for Cox Gomyl, an international building maintenance company in Abu Dhabi. "If you don't maintain your car you'll have problems. If you maintain your equipment properly then it will last longer and it's safer."

The deaths come a week after two window cleaners had to be rescued when the rope supporting their platform snapped while they were working outside the 15th floor of a building in the capital.

Police and Civil Defence secured the platform, at a building on Salam Street, before helping the two Asian men to safety down a rescue ladder.

More such accidents are inevitable with the construction of more high-rise buildings unless maintenance companies are controlled and security measures enforced, manufacturers and inspectors said.

"When the regulations and rules are not enforced it can increase the accident rate," said Elumalai Jagadeesan, the operations manager for Bureau Veritas, a company that carries out cradle inspections in Abu Dhabi.

"There are many companies that are not being approved by Abu Dhabi Municipality. A qualified, competent person must inspect and do the certification."

Other companies avoid maintenance entirely, he said. "It could be a monetary thing, it could be that people don't have the money to do it."

The municipality will fully oversee maintenance companies "very, very soon", Mr Zurub said.

"I think that would be a good thing, to ensure that the maintenance companies are competent to do what they need to do," said Mr Van Der Linde. "You have people servicing the building maintenance units who are not specialists.

"Preventive maintenance is very important and I think much more care could be taken by selecting the companies that do the maintenance."

The government should revisit regulations annually, Mr Jagadeesan said. "Every year new technology and new solutions are coming into the market," he said.

"The biggest priority, above anything else, is human life."

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”