Unless the context otherwise requires in this Article:

(1)        “Claimant” includes any individual, firm, partnership, association or corporation entitled to maintain an action on a bond described in this Article and shall include the “contracting body” in a suit to enforce the performance bond.

(2)        “Construction contract” means any contract for the construction, reconstruction, alteration or repair of any public building or other public work or public improvement, including highways.

(3)        “Contracting body” means any department, agency, or political subdivision of the State of North Carolina which has authority to enter into construction contracts.

(4)        “Contractor” means any person who has entered into a construction contract with a contracting body.

(5)        “Labor or materials” shall include all materials furnished or labor performed in the prosecution of the work called for by the construction contract regardless of whether or not the labor or materials enter into or become a component part of the public improvement, and further shall include gas, power, light, heat, oil, gasoline, telephone services and rental of equipment or the reasonable value of the use of equipment directly utilized in the performance of the work called for in the construction contract.

(6)        “Subcontractor” means any person who has contracted to furnish labor or materials to, or who has performed labor for, a contractor or another subcontractor in connection with a construction contract. (1973, c. 1194, s. 1.)