Interior Ministry terminates Liopetri River fishing shelter contract with contractor and engineer

The Interior Ministry has terminated its contract with the project engineer and contractor selected to create a fishing shelter on Liopetri River.

It is understood that the Ministry came to the decision after exhausting every margin and having given both extra time and opportunities to both the engineer and contractor. In spite of this, the Ministry found that commitments were still not being met and significant delays in the project created.

After Minister Constantinos Ioannou found that the January deadline for the delivery of the project could not be met, the contact was terminated.

In its announcement, the Ministry states that "the work for the first phase of the Project, according to the contract, started on September 18, 2020, with a contractual completion date of March 18, 2023 (project duration: 30 months), for an amount of €8,117,000.”

After securing a significant number of justified approvals from the relevant authorities for time extensions (a total of 22 months additional to the initial contractual time), the Project completion date was postponed to January 14, 2025.

However, the announcement noted that "despite the approval of the above requests for extension of the completion time, the response of the contractor was not as expected, since reduced and extremely slow rates of progress were recorded throughout the duration of the Project."

It is recalled that in an effort to remove the impasse to which the Project was headed, the Department of Town Planning and Housing had repeatedly held meetings with the contractor and the Project Engineer, some of which took place under the Minister of the Interior and in the presence of the Local Authority, of the other co-competent departments (Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, Department of the Environment, etc.) and the impacted professionals working in the area. This was part of an effort to exhaust every margin for the completion of the Project.

Despite multiple notifications, to the contractor and the Project Engineer, calling on them to comply with their contractual obligations and to take all necessary measures to expedite the work, both the contractor and the engineer did not keep the commitments given, the Ministry announcement states.

"On the contrary, the contractor and the Project Engineer at times made excessive demands, not complying with their obligations, as a result of which huge delays were observed in the completion of the Project, the conditions, specifications and procedures were not respected, the quality of the works was not ensured the timetables for securing co-financing were followed."

As a result, the announcement emphasizes, "the Project, which was at 50% completion a year ago, is now at only 55%, there are serious cooperation issues between the contractor and the subcontractors and, therefore, there is no possibility of completing it within the specified time schedules".

At the same time, the Ministry announcement indicates, "due to the delays and prolonged stagnation, the activity of professionals in the area (fishermen, restaurant owners, etc.) has been affected for a long time. Also, the non-develivery and utilisation of the Project has knock-on consequences for the development of the community and the region more broadly."

As the announcement went on to point out, "it becomes clear from the above data that the Contracting Authority has exhausted all margins and has given more time credit, showing good faith and tolerance to the contractor's promises, at a time when no milestone has been reached on his part throughout the duration of the Project.

Assessing the facts and finding that it is practically impossible to cover the long delay that exists in the Project, in an effort to mitigate the consequences and damages caused by the chronic non-compliance of the contractor and the Project Engineer, with the instructions of the Minister of the Interior, the relevant authority last week proceeded to terminate the employment of the contractor and the Engineer due to their fault and due to non-compliance with their contractual obligations.

The announcement also points out that "the correctness of the decision to terminate the contracts is also confirmed by the findings of the Audit Service's relevant report on the matter, which was received yesterday (11 November),” and which, according to the announcement, records, among other things, “the unjustified delay in processing the Project and the need for drastic measures to be taken by the contractor and the Engineer".

The goal of the Ministry of the Interior after this development, the announcement concludes, "is to find the most suitable alternative feasible solution for the release, continuation and completion of the Project.”

In this direction, various possible treatments are being considered by the Ministry of the Interior and involved authorities, “so that the Project can be completed as soon as possible under the circumstances and at the lowest possible cost."

(Source: InBusinessNews)