The Health Ministry on Wednesday said that the government had been proven right by an international arbiter in the case concerning the Paola Health Centre, which is yet to open its doors owing to a dispute with a contractor.

In a statement, the Ministry said that while the contractor’s request from the government was of over €18 million, the arbiter had confirmed that the amount which the government still has left to pay is effectively that of half a million euros.

“The arbiter’s decision gives credibility to the government’s prudence, which terminated the contract and strongly contested the figure requested by the contractor. This was in the national interest and so that the contract’s obligations could be honoured,” the ministry said.

The statement is the latest in the saga concerning the Censu Moran Health Centre in Paola, which has been built but is now long delayed because the contractor responsible for fitting it with medical equipment failed to live up to its obligations.

In late 2018, the government had agreed a deal worth €22 million with the Ergon-Technoline consortium to build the health centre, with works supposed to be finished in around two years.  To date, the health centre is still not open.

The centre was built, but authorities have said that the consortium failed to issue a number of compliance certificates which prevented the building from being signed off. The missed deadline meant that the consortium was slapped with fines which ran up to some €2 million.

The consortium however took the government to the International Chamber of Commerce as it disputed the eventual termination of the contract between the two parties.

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