The joint venture responsible for the new Parliament building has denied claims by an Italian contractor that the stone supplied for the cladding was of inferior quality or that the test results were kept secret.

BIB JV said CFF Filiberti srl, the contractor responsible for cladding the facade, had access to documentation certifying the stone that was used and had never issued instructions for the work to be stopped.

The joint venture’s legal adviser, Peter Fenech, was reacting to claims made by CFF Filiberti in a report carried in The Sunday Times of Malta.

The Italian contractor has accused Q Stone Ltd, the supplier, of providing inferior quality stone and hiding the quality tests it commissioned from an independent laboratory to determine the maximum load per unit area.

CFF Filiberti told the paper last Sunday that it had recently managed to obtain the test results and had concluded that more than 60 per cent of the stone supplied was not according to specifications.

All stone supplied was in conformity with the approved quality assurance and quality control plan

Although it did discard some of the stone supplied due to existence of holes and cracks, the company could not say whether the stone used to clad the building met the required standards, having not been privy to the test results at the time.

But BIB JV, which was selected by the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation as the firm responsible for the entire project, has rejected the claims. Dr Fenech said BIB JV had forwarded most of the documentation it had with regard to certification of the stone and at no point did the Italian firm stop any work from going ahead.

“On the contrary, it kept on working on the stone and affixing [the stones to the façade] through its personnel on site, until completion,” he said.

Dr Fenech said BIB JV had been given assurances by Q Stone Ltd that the quality of the stone “met the required certification” and that “all stone supplied was in conformity with the approved quality assurance and quality control plan”.

He also pointed out that the selection of stone made available by the supplier was the sole prerogative of CFF Filiberti.

“The issues of cost, transportation and other matters in dispute between CFF Filiberti and the supplier are internal issues which have no bearing on the question of quality of the stone,” Dr Fenech added.

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