Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/573382
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2015 News 3 CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Skan- ska's position effectively means that the Maltese government will now be constrained to take up a costly and lengthy legal battle with the Swedish giant if it wishes to recover any of the huge costs needed to repair the seriously faulty cement works at Malta's public hospital. Defective and inferior cement works were discovered at Mater Dei last year, when it was planned to build an additional floor to cre- ate badly needed ward space. Ac- cording to reports the original con- crete suppliers are likely to have made millions in savings from the concrete provided for the hospi- tal's building. MaltaToday had revealed that the FMS's waiver agreement had exonerated Skanska from any fu- ture claims, effectively leaving the Maltese taxpayer to foot a bill for repairs that could run into over €30 million. The controversial waiver signed by FMS architect Paul Camill- eri effectively exoner- ated Skanska from any claims for defects at the hospital. It is this clause which the gov- ernment would have to fight in court. Energy and health minister Konrad Miz- zi has said that Skan- ska had first cited the waiver in 2011, when FMS had contacted the Swedish firm over faulty reservoirs found at Mater Dei. "While the FMS had accepted Skanska's ar- gument back then, we will not, and we will keep on insisting that the waiver doesn't cover the faulty concrete as it is a potential case of fraud," Mizzi had said, describing the waiver in the 2011 agreement as "scandalous". T h e construction weaknesses were de- tected in an independent inspec- tion by the quality assurance com- pany ARUP. "This was consistent with ob- served corrosion of reinforcing steel to columns in untreated un- dercroft zones," Arup director An- drew Harrison had said at a pres- entation of the inspection findings at the Mater Dei auditorium. He said that Mater Dei's struc- tural situation was incomparable to other hospitals he had seen. "The extent of the problem at Mater Dei is surprising and disap- pointing," Harrison said. "It is high- ly unusual for concrete strength is- sues to exist in hospitals in this day and age." The hospital blocks were de- signed to have, in technical termi- nology, a concrete cube strength of 30 megapascals (MPa). Yet the Accident and Emergency depart- ment was found to have a concrete strength of only 18 MPa, while that of Block D hit only 23 MPa. Block A (29 MPa) and Block B (27 MPa) fell narrowly below their specified strength, while Block C, Block E, the mortuary and the on- cology hospital were on target. The impact of the "below-spec- ification concrete" was assessed using a structural model of the building, to test the seismic resil- ience of the A&E building. Arup's assessment highlighted that reme- dial measures were required to ad- dress performance under seismic conditions. Before the summer recess, when answering parliamentary ques- tions from the Opposition bench- es, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed that he had had a meet- ing with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven over a possible settlement with the hospital's contrac- tors, Sweden's Skanska. "It is going to be an uphill struggle, but we are going to fight this case all the way," Mus- cat pledged, adding that a freshly-called investi- gation into the inferior concrete is concluding its findings. At the time Oppo- sition deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami questioned whether the government's legal ac- tion and the police in- vestigations mean that their harsh criticism of the waiver that the Foundation for Medical Services had conceded to Skanska was nothing but "propaganda". The Nationalist par- ty's other deputy leader, Mario de Marco had al- so argued that legal firm Camilleri Preziosi had advised the FMS back in 2009 that the waiver doesn't absolve Skanska of responsibility with regard to de- fects in the hospital structure. Konrad Mizzi had said he had taken this up with representatives of the law firm, insisting that the waiver was "unnecessary". "The reality is that the hospital cost us €700 million, three times as much as an acute hospital of that size costs across Europe. Not only did we pay in excess for it, but we paid for faulty material," Mizzi said. Skanska says it is not liable for defective works Over 4,500 refugees rescued off Libya in one day AD calls for publication of alleged migrant agreement with Italy TWENTYONE rescue operations yesterday picked up more than 4,500 people off the Libyan coast, according to the Italian coast- guard, as calm seas sparked a flurry of attempts at the perilous M e d i t e r r a n e a n boat crossing. Among those taking part were Doctors Without Borders (MFS) with their ship Bourbon Argos, which rescued over 800 people. "We started before first light this morning with our first rescue. We rescued two wooden fishing boats and two rubber dinghies," Simon Burroughs, emergency coordina- tor for search-and-rescue mis- sions, said. Burroughs said those rescued included Eritreans, Nigerians, So- malis, Libyans, Syrians and west Africans. The 21 operations took place be- tween 30 and 40 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, and saw rescue workers pluck people from nine boats and 12 dinghies. The body of a woman was also recovered. Signs of stabbing and beating were found on a number of refu- gees rescued by the Migrant Off- shore Aid Station and Seawatch on Saturday morning, MOAS said on Twitter. In three back-to-back rescue operations, MOAS saved 301 persons. A fourth rescue opera- tion was then underway, AFP re- ported. The mass effort was carried out by an Italian military ship, the MSF's Bourbon Argos, the Mi- grant Offshore Aid Station's vessel Phoenix, a Croatian vessel operat- ing under EU border agency Fron- tex, two vessels operating within the Eunavfor Med mission – one British, one German – and the Italian coastguard. On Friday, 102 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean by Libyan authorities, and seven other bodies were recovered. The Italian coastguard said it coordi- nated the rescue of a total of 1,013 migrants. Another 124 people were de- tained by Libyan coastguard offi- cials Friday as they were preparing to cross to Europe. ALTERNATTIVA Demokratika has called on the government to publish all documentation in its possession pertaining to why Italy has agreed to take in Malta's share of asylum seekers rescued in the Mediterranean Sea. The Maltese government has strongly denied Italian media re- ports of an agreement through which the country would take in Malta's share of asylum seekers in exchange for oil exploration rights in disputed territorial waters off Sicily. However, AD deputy chairper- son Carmel Cacopardo said in a statement that the government's simple denial is insufficient and will not solve anything. "It is pretty obvious that there exists some agreement on the matter, even if this is only based on the traditional friendship be- tween Malta and Italy. It would have been much better if in addi- tion to the denial, the government published all the documentation in its possession about what was actually agreed to with the Italian government. "The Maltese government should immediately put all its cards on the table and be transparent." Earlier this week, Berlusconi- owned newspaper Il Giornale picked up media reports in Malta quoting Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela saying there was an "informal agreement" between Italy and Malta to take in rescued people. Abela later issued a clari- fication saying there was no such agreement but a "close collabo- ration" between Italy and Malta in missions to save lives and that Italy's decision was a sign of "po- litical maturity". Signs of stabbing, beating on rescued refugees Attorney General Peter Grech