Update 25 May - MCST reacts
Malta’s first national interactive science centre in Bighi – to be known as Esplora – will be opening its doors almost two years late, the Times of Malta is informed.
Although the project is partly funded by EU funds and was expected to be completed by the end of 2014, MCST chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said that none of the €12 million EU funds have been lost.
The former Nationalist MP, who was retained in his position by the Labour government, blamed contractors working on the project for the delays and said penalties will now be imposed.
“The delay is mainly due to the late delivery of work by our lead contractor, notwithstanding constant pressure from MCST,” Dr Pullicino Orlando said.
“We have already started consultations with the Department of Contracts in relation to the imposition of the relevant penalties.”
The €26 million project, which will see the first-ever interactive science centre in Malta, was allocated €12 million in EU funds. According to EU rules, the funds had to be used by December 2015.
However, despite that, the project has been severely delayed, Dr Pullicino Orlando said all the EU funds had been spent.
We have started consultations with the Department of Contracts in relation to the imposition of the relevant penalties
“None of the ERDF funds allocated to the project have been lost,” Dr Pullicino Orlando insisted. “All EU structural funds were spent by September 2015, and we managed to absorb a further €2 million, which would otherwise have been lost.”
In 2012, when the project was officially launched after securing the required EU funding, the council under the chairmanship of Dr Pullicino Orlando said that the project would be finished by the end of 2014.
However, this completion date was not respected.
Later, in March 2015, during an on-site visit of ongoing works, Dr Pullicino Orlando said that all was moving according to plan, with the opening of the centre earmarked for December 2015.
However, following the second deadline having been missed, Dr Pullicino Orlando said that the new date for the opening of the science centre had now been delayed to the end of the coming summer.
The ongoing work will transform the former Royal Navy Hospital within the Villa Bighi complex in Kalkara into a state-of-the-art science centre spread over 22,000 square metres.
Esplora will feature indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces and interactive expositions showcasing science and technology.
The main attraction will be a purpose-built planetarium housed in a 10.7 metre diameter dome.
The centre will form part of a global network of 3,000 similar institutions.
Delay is months, not years - MCST
In a reply, the Council insisted that the centre would only have been delayed by "a few months" by the time it opened.
"The contractual finishing date for this very challenging project was December 2015," the Council said, noting that works had started in March 2014, and that it was not realistic to expect the centre to have opened by the end of that year.
No EU funds had been lost, with money earmarked for the now-abandoned project to build an underground museum outside St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta having been reallocated to the Science Centre.
In total, the project will have taken two and a half years to complete, the Council said.