University of Cyprus rebuked for costly construction delays

The University of Cyprus has been derelict in its management of a contract regarding the construction of facilities on its premises, with cost overruns expected to reach €2.6 million, the auditor-general said in a report released Monday.

The Audit Office issued a special report on a contract awarded by the university for the construction of buildings for the Department of Biological Sciences as well as common teaching facilities. It found delays in the completion of the contract – an estimated 17 months – and rebuked the university for mismanaging the affair.

The contract was initially awarded for €31.63 million. The duration of construction was to be 36 months, with the date of delivery on May 31, 2023.

However, based on payment certificates seen by the Audit Office, by mid-April of this year the project was only 78 per cent complete, and time-wise the delivery deadline had already been exceeded by 30 per cent.

The university had earlier granted the contractor a ‘justified extension’ of 182 calendar days, with the date of delivery pushed back to end of November 2023. No additional financial compensation for the contractor was involved.

But subsequently, the contractor requested an additional extension of 365 calendar days, which would place the date of delivery at end of November 2024.

Since December 2023, when the ‘justified extension’ expired, the university began to withhold part of the payments to the contractor – penalising the contractor for the delays. Up until mid-April of this year, these financial penalties for ‘unjustified delays’ came to €690,000, relating to a delay of 138 calendar days.

According to the university’s latest assessment, the project is now expected to be finished in October of this year– meaning the total ‘unjustified delay’ (since December 2023) will surpass 11 months.

“In other words,” reads the auditor’s report, “the project is due to be completed within 53 months, compared to the 36 months which was the period stipulated in the contract.”

And given the slow pace so far, the Audit Office expresses doubts as to whether the university’s latest delivery assessment will be borne out.

“It is indisputably documented that progress in the project continues to be slow, as a result of which major delays have been caused.”

Due to “inefficient oversight” over the project, to date the contractor has requested eleven requests for extensions, corresponding to an extra 1,491 calendar days.

Moreover, in the interim the contractor has raised its financial demands by €8.34 million.

As for the university, it now estimates the final cost to land at €34.2 million – or almost 5 per cent higher than the initial contract value of €31.63 million.

“Taking into account the pending technical issues…potentially this deviation from the initial cost may grow further,” the Audit Office said.

The report does not name the contractor. But from public documents available online, the contractor is identified as A. Aristotelous Construction Ltd. According to University of Cyprus documents, this company had submitted the lowest bid.