A Maltese supplier of stone is being held responsible for the delay in the completion of the new Parliament building in Valletta by the Italian company facing a daily fine until its work is done.

Cff Filiberti Srl filed a judicial protest against Q Stone Ltd holding it responsible for the fines and the damages it was suffering.

Q Stone Ltd had been chosen by the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation, following a tendering process, to supply stone blocks to cover the building’s facade and interiors.

Filiberti said the Maltese company, which was providing the stone from a quarry in Qala, did not deliver within the established time frames and Cff was now being fined as a result of the delays.

It said the company had not yet supplied the quantity of stone agreed, with 60 cubic metres left to be delivered from a total of 2,000 cubic metres.

In comments from his plant in Parma, company director Michele Filiberti told Times of Malta last week that one of the reasons for the delay was the continuous shortage of stone, which had to be quarried from a site in Ta’ Klement, Qala.

The material is then shipped in large blocks to the Parma plant where it is rigorously cut into thousands of different forms and shipped back to Malta.

The Qala stone is being used in large quantities for the internal finishes and to clad the two blocks from the outside.

In its protest, the Italian company also complained about the quality of the stone being provided, saying that it was poor.

Due to delays in the provision of the stone and its inferior quality, the firm was having to bear additional expenses.

It called on the Maltese company to deliver the remaining stone blocks as soon as possible so that it could be in a position to complete the project.

The new Parliament building, designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano, was meant to have been operational by the end of September, in time for Parliament’s move from the President’s Palace.

However, its official opening was postponed as works fell behind schedule for the umpteenth time.

The corporation then started imposing daily fines on the contractors for the delay in the completion of the project.

Lawyers Andrew Grima and James Scerri Worley signed the protest.