Social Democrats TD Roisin Shortall has accused the builder of the new children’s hospital, BAM, of deliberately operating a “go slow” in a bid to get more money.
“There seems to be a game going on,” she told RTÉ radio’s News at One. Bam had already received €55million extra as compensation for inflation and delays.
Such behaviour by the contractor was “entirely unacceptable”, she added.
Ms Shortall pointed out that the contractor had not provided the development board for the national children’s hospital with a completion programme, setting out the expected timescale and cost. It was due to have been provided last week and is now promised for next week.
“It's entirely unsatisfactory that we've had this situation over the past two years where there was no detail being provided by the contractor and we're left in the dark in relation to the estimated final cost and the completion date.”
There were over 2,000 claims by BAM against the development board with an estimated total cost of €756 million, the claims were for a variety of reasons such as changes to the contract, for delays, for additional works that were being asked for, she explained.
“There's no clear strategy for addressing those claims. Two of them are in the courts at the moment, apparently, but with no strategy at all. Last year there was a moratorium in place in terms of addressing those claims.
"That was the view of the board that if they parked the claims and tried to get on with the actual physical building of the new hospital, that it would be helpful if they parked the claims. That moratorium has finished now.
“It would seem to be the case that BAM are operating a go slow. They certainly don't have sufficient staff on the site. There's a game going on between the claims, having the claims processed and actually delivering on the work that they're contracted to do.”
The value of the claims was being disputed by the development board, but the fact remained that there was a substantial number of claims and “a huge amount of work that needs to be done in terms of resolving those and presumably a substantial cost involved.
“There seems to be a game going on at the moment where the contractor is on a go slow. The longer that the contract takes to fulfill, the more additional costs are involved, and the greater the level of inflation costs that have to be factored in.
“There's already been a payment of €55 million to account for inflation because of those delays. All of these thing adds up to huge concern, I think, certainly on the part of the health committee in relation to the fact that we're still no further on than we were eight or nine months ago when the board were in with us before.
“We’re told that the only thing we can be sure about is that the costs will continue to go up and that the completion date will continue to be stretched out. That's entirely unsatisfactory from any kind of accountability perspective.
"And we have to bear in mind that an application now has been made to the government for additional funding on top of the €1.73 billion that's already been accounted for. So additional funding, we still don't know the level of that.
“This raises huge issues about problems with public contracts, and we have to ensure that these mistakes with the contract are not repeated in the new maternity hospital.”
Ms Shortall said there was a line of accountability from BAM to the development board to the Department of Health and to DEPAR. You get the sense that there is no proper oversight in relation to this massive project, it is very badly needed.
"It was first announced 11 years ago, and we still don't know those crucial questions about when it's going to be completed and how much the final price tag is going to be.”
