Poland: Wrocław sacks contractors, demands compensation

source: Gazeta.pl; author: michał

Poland: Wrocław sacks contractors, demands compensation Just days after Euro 2012 ended yet another contractor is facing legal action as municipality of Wrocław terminated Max Bögl's contract to build the stadium – Gazeta.pl reads.

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Relations between Wrocław 2012 (municipal company overlooking the construction and operation of the new stadium) and German company Max Bögl have been deteriorating for months.

There are several reasons. First, the contractor was to deliver his work in mid-2011, but as he was failing to do so, new deadlines started appearing, exceeded one after another. In fact, as Gazeta.pl reports, the stadium is ready only in 97% with some of its important elements not working correctly. Though operational, the venue's ICT system has to be controlled manually instead of remotely. Some works still need to be done in the parking space as well.

And as delays grew, the price did as well. Contractors claim their costs were on the rise as well, but city officials have been claiming for months that Max Bögl was intentionally inflating costs by, for example, sending 'ghost-invoices' for works that weren't ordered or done, but were still in the books.

All the tensions resulted in Wrocław 2012 terminating the contract last Friday. The city also demands a 60m zloty (€14m) compensation. Most probable scenario is that Max Bögl will reject the claims, which means it may end in court.

This would mean months without decision and Wrocław refuses to wait that long. The city wants to start new tenders for unfinished elements as soon as possible, taking funds to finance them from bank guarantees. If the bank accepts city's claims, it will in turn demand the money from Max Bögl, which again means the contractor may attempt to block the financing.

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