An Italian contractor working on the new Parliament building blames the delays on the quality of the stone excavated from a Gozo quarry.
“At the moment, we are still waiting for the stone from Malta to be able to finish the project, so it is unjust for others to blame us for the delays,” Michele Filiberti, president of Filiberti Group, told Times of Malta.
Contacted at his plant in Parma, Mr Filiberti said 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.
We are doing technological miracles
Designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano, the building was to be operational by the end of September, in time for Parliament’s move from the President’s Palace. But its official opening was postponed as works fell behind schedule for the umpteenth time.
The Qala stone is being used in large quantities for the internal finishes and to clad the two blocks from the outside.
According to Mr Piano, the idea behind using it was to emphasise the Maltese identity in this prime location in the capital. However, Mr Filiberti said the raw material was rarely up to the required standard, in spite of numerous guarantees from the Maltese supplier.
Road Construction Company Ltd of Gozo, which owns the Qala quarry from where the stone originates, said their contractual obligations were with Q Stone Ltd, which was registered in Malta, and not with the Italian firm.
Confirming that all hard stone used in the Valletta entrance project had been sourced from their Qala quarry, the company pointed out that the particular type used, which had been identified by Mr Piano, had been tested to ensure it was up to standard.
When contacted, an Infrastructure Ministry spokeswoman pointed the finger at Cff Filiberti, which, she said, had not yet made all the deliveries and the missing units were still in production in Italy.
She added that the government would retain its position to impose fines on the contractors for not meeting deadlines.
Mr Filiberti strongly disagreed, saying his company had done “technological miracles” in order to be able to deliver the product to the specifications required, given the inferior quality of the raw material. He added they would deliver the stone on time as long as other people would keep their commitments.
We have not received a single payment for the past 11 months
Gazzetta di Parma reported in February that Filiberti’s contract was estimated to be worth €12.5 million. From a technical perspective, the job was challenging because the stone had to be cut into more than 13,000 different shapes and then shipped back to Malta in more than 400 trucks, the report said.
Mr Filiberti said his company had suffered financially because they had to come up with numerous solutions at their own expense to mitigate the situation.
“In reality, we ended up shipping more than 200 extra truckloads of stone to satisfy the client,” he said.
“At the same time, we have not received a single payment for the past 11 months and have continued to work on this contract at the expense of endangering the future of the company,” Mr Filiberti said.
On Monday the House Business Committee will be discussing the way forward and trying to establish a new deadline for the project’s completion.
The ministry spokeswoman said the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation, which is overseeing the project, would be presenting a dossier to outline the reasons for the delays and the remaining works.
In the meantime, GHRC was holding talks with all entities involved, particularly with BIB JV, the main contractor responsible for the works.