Avantgarde Projects this afternoon denied having been paid for works it did not do at Ħandaq government school, adding that it accepted a lower payment than it had invoiced solely to avoid protracted court action.
Referring to a story carried in the Sunday Times of Malta, the company said that in 2011 had been commissioned by the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools to carry out works at the school. The foundation then requested additional work which was not included in the contract.
In August 2012 the company started facing difficulties when the foundation stopped payments without justification and failed to hand over substantial parts of the site for the works to be completed on time.
This meant that the company had to face higher costs.
Once the foundation released the site, the works were completed.
The foundation was then invoiced for the whole works, but the foundation, without reason, refused to pay up, the company said.
Avantgarde Projects said it handed a dossier of the facts to the foundation, the Director of Contracts and then Education Minister Dolores Cristina.
After the general election the same document was handed to minister Evarist Bartolo.
It said that the payment handed to it in November 2015 by the foundation was far lower than requested, but it was accepted as a compromise to avoid years of court litigation.