Jamail Smith Construction Jamail Construction has a habit of breaking small subcontractors in Houston, Texas

We are a minority contractor who has also been ripped off by Jamail & Smith. We have been victim to the un-ethical business practices of Jamail & Smith and agree that they are a shady company.

It is no surprise that Jamail & Smith is trying to swoop in and lock down minority business contract because they have used small companies for their own advance.

They are trying to mask their dealings with school districts and Section 3 projects with the best intentions of small contractors while all the time they are actually taking advantage of small contractors by simply not paying for work performed.

We were highly involved in getting section 3 certified and attempting on bidding on new projects and quickly realized that the system was corrupt and a waste of time. There was an intense pre-qualification process and this was basically a joke when you do not get an opportunity to provide bids because the persons in charge of the projects are showing preference to a company like Jamail & Smith. Thus giving Jamail & Smith the bulling power they abuse. All the time the real victims are the smaller companies with the certifications that perform the work, get the minority participation stats high and in the end do not get paid, just like US!

We could not even file a bond claim against Jamail & Smith which is what we rely on when not getting paid because of a legal bottle neck.

Jamail & Smith looks to take advantage of legal loop holes. Look at the ABC Under Cover report by Wayne Deltrephino about how Jamail & Smith has had a free office trailer on the HISD compound on McCarty road for seven years rent free and doing non HISD work from this trailer. We never notice this when picking up checks for non-HISD work from the HISD compound office trailer but were not surprised when read about this report. We always had difficulty getting paid by Jamail & Smith and basically wanted to be done with them as quickly as possible. Jamail & Smith was using tax payer money to pay for this office and now does not want to pay back rent claiming that this was allowed per their contract by looking at the language in the contract. This is a good example of how Jamail & Smith will take advantage of a big entity such as HISD by looking for a loophole all though knowing it is obviously wrong and abuse it for seven years. Imagine what they have been doing to the small business that they are supposed to bring into government contracts to get the minority participation up to par to meet requirements.

I really hope the crunch on Jamail & Smith takes them where they belong.