Slovakia has won an arbitration dispute between the National Highway Company (NDS) and the former Italian-Slovak contractor of the D1-motorway section between Lietavska Lucka and Dubna Skala (Zilina region), including the Višňove tunnel, Transport Minister Jozef Ráž (a Smer-SD nominee) told a news conference on Wednesday.
The consortium of Webuild (formerly Salini Impregilo) and Duha has been ordered to pay Slovakia some €35 million. The ruling was issued by an arbitration court in Vienna. Meanwhile, the state should pay nearly €840,000 to the consortium.
"We'll call on the contractor to pay voluntarily. If it fails to do so, the ruling is enforceable both at home and abroad, and we'll rigorously pursue the awarded funds down to the last euro," said Ráž. According to him, the state had sought a total of €50 million covering fines, defect repairs, cleaning up a polluted stream and several other minor claims amounting to millions of euros. "Of the €250 million claimed by the opposing party, the contractor was awarded €838,739, which is an absolutely negligible sum compared with what it was seeking," said Ráž.
"We knew we'd achieve the best possible outcome, but the expectation remained that Slovakia would have to pay nearly €100 million," said Ráž. He described the fact that the consortium has been ordered to pay some €35 million as an absolute victory for Slovakia in the arbitration proceedings. According to the minister, the ruling serves as a big warning to all companies bidding for state contracts worth hundreds of millions or billions of euros to be careful and to avoid harbouring bad intentions.
NDS terminated its contract with the former contractor for the section including the Višňove tunnel by mutual agreement in 2019. The reasons were significant delays in the work and defects identified in the tunnel. Construction began in 2014, and the contractor was originally due to complete it in 2019 for some €410 million (excluding VAT). The subsequent arbitration proceedings, involving both parties' claims, began in 2021. The arbitration court's ruling, dated 6 October, runs to 958 pages. The D1-motorway section including the Višňove tunnel was eventually completed by Skanska SK and opened to motorists in December of last year.
Source: TASR
