Kition Ocean Holdings criticises state’s handling of project handover

In a letter to the Transport Ministry’s Permanent secretary also shared with the press, Kition Ocean Holdings has criticised the state’s handling of the handover of the Larnaka Port and Marina Area following the termination of its contract to undertake the project.

As outlined in the letter, “On 27 May 2024, the Grantor sent a notice of purported termination of the Concession Agreement, and it ordered KITION to vacate the premises immediately so that it could take all rights over the Project. The Grantor chose not to have a handover period, that would allow for a smooth transition of the operations. Instead, it showed up with Police escort but without a real plan or direction on how to proceed (despite the fact that the Concession Agreement provided for the Grantor being able to state a notice period before the purported termination would have become effective, and during which time the Concessionaire could have assisted in the smooth transfer of the Assets back to the Grantor).”

Kition continued that, “The Grantor’s gross mishandling of the situation has been the cause of every single problem in the transition of the operations of the Port and the Marina, affecting not only the transfer of employees but also the transfer of the business and assets.”

It continued that the company, “Has shown extraordinary restraint in dealing with the lack of competence of the Grantor in handling the transfer and has been trying to assist for the transfer of assets to be completed as soon as possible. However, the Grantor has exhibited unprecedented bad faith by attempting to shift its responsibilities to KITION after the Grantor was criticised publicly for problems in the operation of the Port by various groups (professional truck drivers, employees, unions).”

Also according to the letter, “The Grantor has repeatedly misrepresented to the Media that its own delays, shortcomings and problems in the operations of the Port and Marina since it took over, are due to the lack of cooperation of KITION in the transfer of assets. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since the termination of the Concession Agreement, we have had two meetings regarding the handover. You were asked to nominate an IT specialist from your side to liaise with our IT specialist for the passing over of the accesses and codes on the various software. You failed to realise, even though we explained in detail, that you needed to have an IT specialist for the transfer of the Marina Master Software and other software and that you needed to have servers available. We eventually had to draw a step-by-step plan for you. We also asked you repeatedly to indicate to whom title of the various machinery should be transferred as well as to indicate which machinery are most urgent to you so as to proceed with immediate transfer, considering that all machinery had remained in your possession since the receipt of the Grantor’s notice of purported termination dated 27/05/2024. You again failed to realise that you needed to act and that the transfer needed to be declared at the Road Transport Department following the proper procedures.”

“Only following our second meeting on 17/07/2024 did you take steps to plan for the transfer of the machinery,” the letter went on to say before continuing, “As regards the weigh bridges, you ignored our letter to you of 20/06/2024 where we asked you if the CPA had a calibration certificate – as the current calibration certificate was in our name. Eventually on 17/07/2024 you agreed to not use KITION’s calibration certificate in using the weigh bridges. You misrepresented to the media that KITION has locked the machinery and is not giving access to the Government (18/07/2024 at brief.com.cy «Λιμάνι Λάρνακας: «Κλείδωσε τα μηχανήματα η KITION και δεν τα παραδίδει»). As you are well aware and as was also clearly stated at our meeting on 17/07/2024, all keys are held by YOUR employees and you have access to everything. KITION only had spare keys which shall be handed over to you as agreed, yet you continue to misrepresent the situation in the media by mouth of the Minister. In any event, the machinery has always been available to the Grantor since 27/05/2024.”

Continuing its criticism of the state, Kition said, “Your actions are causing significant reputational damage to KITION for which we reserve all our legal rights. Furthermore, we will ensure that all the misinformation that the Grantor is putting into the media is corrected so that the public fully understands the true facts in this matter, and to mitigate the significant damage that the Grantor is causing to the Concessionaire. As we had pointed out in both our meetings, it was the decision of the Grantor to unlawfully terminate the Concession Agreement with immediate effect and to request us to vacate the Project Site immediately without any forethought as to how, amongst other things, the many and varying types of Assets were to be transferred that is now causing delay and complication.”

“We reiterate, we are trying to ensure a smooth and efficient transfer of Assets complying with any legal or procedural requirements stated by law or common practice, but we rely on your timely and proper cooperation to do so,” the letter concluded.