Drainage projects cost council double
The Department of the Environment has refused to sanction additional funding after the bill for a drainage project in Kinsale hit €26.7m.
A local government auditor said schemes at Buttevant and Blarney compounded the problem.
The auditor said the final bill for the three projects was more than double the original tendered amount, and has contributed to the council’s debt pile of €63m.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act showed the largest shortfall emerged from phase two of the Kinsale main drainage scheme.
Sorensen Civil Engineering won the tender for €6.3m worth of work. However, due to unforeseen problems and resulting negotiations, the council agreed to pay €14.5m.
In Apr 2009, the total approved budget for phase two in Kinsale stood at €18.7m. By Mar 2011, the total budget had risen to €23m.
Costs continued to rise. At the end of last year, the bill hit €26.7m and the grant element was upped from €11m to €17m.
Last October, a request for more money from the department was turned down.
The department said it had already agreed to an extra €2.6m and a proposal to raise this by €3.7m was too much.
“The department has already adjusted the approved budget... On that basis, no further increase in the current construction cost is warranted,” it told the council.
In Buttevant, the contract to build the sewerage scheme ballooned after work began on Sept 2006 but was delivered 64 weeks late.
When the project was finished in Jan 2009, the original €2.5m budget had become a €5.4m bill.
The largest increase related to the civil works carried out by M&B Construction Ltd.
According to a report completed in Nov 2012, the council had originally intended contesting the bill but felt that it was too risky to proceed to arbitration, so it settled.
Additional costs included problems with the location, capacity, and height of pumping stations.
The approved contract also included the provision of an automatic traffic light management system, but gardaí intervened and requested human flag men. The salary costs came to €158,874.
Delays caused by archaeological investigations, the holding of the Cahermee horse fair, and work to getting sewerage systems right for the local business park held up construction by 123 days.
In an explanatory note, prepared with the freedom of information request, the council said the contracts were approved under tender rules which have since been modernised to better adapt for surprises.
It said procurement rules had been followed but contractors were entitled to be compensated for unforeseen issues.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
