The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced today that an arbitration institution partially acknowledged all claims for additional costs, $ 233 million of the 463 claimed, the prime contractor for the expansion of the road, Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC).
ACP said in a statement that the Dispute Resolution Board (JRC) issued a choice in which “recognizes the payment of a fraction of the amounts claimed by GUPC in respect of alleged cost overruns on construction of the third set of locks of the Canal expansion. “
The administration of channel Panama said the recognized overhead refers to unforeseen expenses incurred by the poor quality of basalt that is extracted from a nearby mine of the Pacific locks for construction work.
GUPC also claimed that there had been delays because the ACP would be “expanded” the approval of the concrete mix used in construction.
ACP said in its statement that in this case, GUPC claimed about 463 million dollars, “of which the board recognized only 233 million dollars.”
In the decision of the JRC will also recognizes the group contractor an extension of the deadline of 176 days after GUPC claimed 265 days.
Meanwhile, GUPC found that the decision requires the ACP to pay GUPC “$ 234 million and award a contract extension of six months.”
GUPC said these cases are taken “over four years” and that could have been solved “in the first place because they were technically justified within the framework of the Contract”.
“ GUPC has always advocated dialogue to reduce these lawsuits impacting the development of the work, generate additional costs and losses and affect Panamanians and the international maritime community waiting for the completion of the project, “said the statement from the contractor group.
The CEO of GUPC , Giuseppe Quarta said in the statement that they are satisfied with the decision and stressed that “the systematic and unjustified rejection of complaints from ACP has impacted the project and the Contractor.”
“It is clear that no timely recognition of claims not only multiplies the losses but it has a cumulative negative effect on the project,” added Quarta.
The parties have the option of bringing the case before a Court of Arbitration under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce not be any happy with this decision.
Therefore, the administrator of the Panama Canal, Jorge Luis Quijano, said this is not necessarily the end the process.
Meanwhile, Quarta GUPC studies indicated that in determining why their claims are recognized only partially.
GUPC has submitted other claims for cost overruns, which previously The JRC had already recognized two in favor of the ACP against the contractor, which claimed a total of 130 million in those two cases.
Quijano announced on December 26 that GUPC introduced two new claims , totaling $ 735 million for cost overruns on the project to expand the Panama Canal.
With the two new claims, the additional costs submitted by the consortium led by Sacyr and built by Italian Impregilo, Belgian Jan de Nul and Cusa panamesa totaling about 2,300 million.
The latest claims are expected the brunt of the giant lock gates (333 million dollars) and “have accelerated work “(402 million), Quijano said.
In 2009, both sides, ACP and GUPC signed a contract for 3.118 million dollars for the design and construction of new canal locks, the main expansion project of the waterway.
For various costs which the contractor claimed to have suffered in the work, the construction of the locks froze in February 2014 for two weeks until GUPC and ACP found a solution that gave liquidity to the consortium without affecting the final figure of the contract.
The total enlargement program, initiated in 2007, with an increase of 85%, has a budget of 5,250 million dollars and should be completed in 2015 for the new channel start commercial operation in the first quarter of 2016.
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