The company in charge of Palma’s Palacio de Congresos convention centre does not intend engaging in any new negotiations with the contractor Acciona regarding the scheduling of work. This means that it will also not be budging as to the completion date for the Palacio and the hotel, which has been a condition laid down by Acciona for resuming work that has been suspended.
The president of the company, Palma’s tourism councillor, Joana Maria Adrover, says that Acciona has been called to attend a meeting on Monday in order to explain, at first hand, what is happening with the work and what it thinks it is doing. Depending on what Acciona says, the Palacio company could decide to take measures, such as enforcing the four million euro bond that the contract contemplates in the event of work being suspended.
The town hall and the regional government are said to be “in total and common agreement” over the Palacio affair and will be on whatever decision is taken once “all the arguments from both sides” have been presented on Monday. Adrover insists that there will be no discussion as to a revised timetable, as there “already was one for completion of work, which was 25 July”. “What they (Acciona) have to now do is meet their obligation, as we will ours,” she adds.
This obligation, as far as Adrover is concerned, requires Acciona to complete the work by 31 December and that “if they are not going to, then they have to say so”. She is clear that it is Acciona which is “lying to the media” and not the town hall, “which has always provided the same message and has done so truthfully”.
The councillor believes that the work stoppage is a means of applying pressure to get 15 million euros compensation which Acciona claims it is owed for previous delay to the Palacio. “There is no other explanation,” reckons Adrover, who also says that a penalty of 20,000 euros for each day that there is an overrun will not be waived, suggesting that this sanction was in fact due to have started from 25 July. Extension to the time for the work was given because the Palacio company “had no other choice”. President Armengol, meanwhile, has avoided making any pronouncement on the affair or on sanctions to be applied to Acciona, saying only that “we have to try and find another way”.