The government is mulling severing ties with the contractor responsible for the Paola health hub, after a series of missed deadlines in the project’s final stages means it has been unable to open its doors to the public.
Audit firm Grant Thornton has been tasked with analysing the repercussions of terminating the contract.
A notice announcing the €20,000 direct order to the audit firm, issued in April, appeared in a recent edition of the Government Gazette.
The direct order asks Grant Thorton to help authorities reach an “informed decision on whether to terminate the contract re the Paola Regional Health Hub and the respective repercussions”.
Sources within the health ministry told Times of Malta the move comes in the wake of a series of missed deadlines that have stalled the government’s final takeover of the building.
Although construction work has been completed, sources say the contractor has missed as many as 17 deadlines in recent months, most linked to certification and quality control. The government cannot sign off on the project and take over the building until this certification is completed, sources say, otherwise, it would be assuming responsibility for any issues that could later emerge.
The dispute has spilled over into the courts, with arbitration proceedings between the contractor and the government currently underway. Submissions in these proceedings have been filed recently, with government sources expecting an outcome in the coming weeks.
Bumpy ride from the start
The Paola health hub has had a troubled history from the get-go.
It was first announced over a decade ago but never got off the ground because the government did not have a title to the land.
The project was eventually greenlit in 2017, with the site of the former Paola boċċi club earmarked for a €39m investment that would cater for almost a third of Malta’s population.
At the time, the authorities had said the health centre would open by 2020.
The project soon hit a bump in the road when several bidders objected to the decision to award the project’s tender to SP BB International JV, a consortium made up of Bonnici Brothers, Ray Vella and Pantalesco, among others. In a series of appeals, bidders argued that the adjudication process was tainted.
An adjudication board ordered that the bids be re-evaluated, with the Department of Contract reversing its original decision and awarding the project to the Egron-Technoline consortium, whose bid was €4m cheaper than the original winners.
The almost-completed health centre, now named the Vincent Moran Health Centre, after the late doctor and Labour health minister, came under the spotlight again in the days leading to last June’s MEP elections, with the authorities promising that it would be opening “in the near future”.