Representatives of Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital (PSKUS) arrived at the construction site to take over the unfinished A2 ward from Velve LLC. Representatives of Latvian State Police arrived at the site, LETA reports.
The State Police informed LETA that police officers are present at the site to ensure public order and security.
LETA previously reported that the hospital planned to take over the unfinished A2 ward from Velve LLC on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the 13th of February, the contract between PSKUS and Velve was terminated. According to PSKUS, the construction company failed to meet agreed upon terms, serious defects were found at the construction site and were never fixed, the construction company also employed other subcontractors at the site. Other violations were found as well. Initially it was planned for the hospital to take over the new hospital ward from Velve on the 20th of February, but this never happened.
The hospital did offer Velve to sign an agreement, based on which the hospital would take over the construction site and perform actions to ensure uninterrupted construction work there. Velve, on the other hand, proposed signing a redaction of the agreement to terminate the contract, but the hospital refused.
PSKUS stresses that the hospital’s A2 ward is state property managed by the hospital, whereas Velve’s actions in refusing to leave the site may lead to criminal liability. The hospital claims it acted in accordance with the law while also using the tools provided by the law to protect their rights and interests. Velve will also be asked to compensate the losses caused by the company’s actions.
Once the construction site is under the hospital’s authority, it is planned to perform an independent construction inspection in order to survey the construction quality of the entire site, as there is reason to believe that the previous list of construction defects may not have been fixed in full. The hospital also plans to start all necessary actions to dismantle nearly 8 000 m2 area, where BIOR laboratory had previously found seven different species of mould.
LETA previously reported that the completion of the construction of the new ward for PSKUS has already been postponed several times. The contract initially provided for the project to be completed by spring 2023. However, the deadline was extended multiple times throughout the project. This also caused the price to go up. The last agreed upon deadline for the project’s completion was the 1st of June 2024. Despite this, however, the construction company made numerous requests to extended the deadline, stressing that the new possible deadline could come after summer of 2025.
The hospital’s council believes this proves the construction company has not been able to complete its contractual obligations and finish the project. On top of that, the hospital’s freedom to extend the contract is limited by the Public Procurement Law.
Velve does not agree with PSKUS’ decision for a unilateral termination of the contract and considers it illegal. The main reasons as to why there were delays with construction deadlines are related to the poor quality of the construction project, according to Velve.
Also read: PSKUS: the previous board was wrong – should have terminated contract with Velve sooner
Follow us on Facebook and X!
Latvian State Police monitors PSKUS construction site’s takeover from Velve LLC
