Children’s hospital contractor Bam submits claims for €983m over disputed costs

The contractor behind the new national children’s hospital has submitted claims for an additional €983 million over disputed costs incurred during the project, new correspondence shows.The construction of the facility on the St James’s Hospital site in Dublin began in 2016. The subsequent years have been marked by ballooning costs – from €987 million to €2.24 billion, with repeated delays exacerbated by an increasingly fractious relationship between the builders, Bam, and the board overseeing the project, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB).In a letter to the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts, David Gunning, chief officer of the board, provided an update on the project.According to Gunning, the “largest contributing factor” to delayed completion is Bam’s “continued failure” to resource the project. He added that this is “exacerbated by inadequate quality assurance”, which has led to “time-consuming rework”.READ MOREOver the past 15 months, Gunning said Bam had to “extensively rework” initial installations to meet contractual standards, including remediating all 316 manual sliding doors, 126 of the 244 bathroom pod floors and half of the operating theatre floors, of which three had to be redone for a third time.“Bam has addressed 199,700 defects to date, including remediating over 2,000 fire doors. Currently, approximately 2,000 defects remain, though new defects are added and closed during ongoing inspections,” the letter said.[ Children’s hospital development board spent €672,000 on public relations servicesOpens in new window ][ ‘My youngest child will probably be bearded before the national children’s hospital opens’Opens in new window ]It added that “5,017 of 5,728 rooms have now reached the contract standard. The hospital cannot open until Bam has satisfactorily addressed all quality and compliance matters.”Gunning also said that the contractor has submitted “substantiated claims” of about €983 million. The board previously said it was defending some €880 million worth of claims.“The value of claims submitted by Bam should not be confused with either the amounts determined to be payable or an increase in the approved project budget,” said Gunning.“Claims are assessed through the contractual dispute resolution process, and the NPHDB continues to robustly defend claims it considers to be without merit.”The controversial and costly children's hospital is soon set to open, but when? Video: Enda O'Dowd Gunning said that, to the end of August, the employer’s representative has determined and awarded 7 per cent of the claimed total in accordance with the contract – approximately €110 million.He added that the board is withholding 15 per cent of payments because there is “no compliant programme in place” that would outline a timeline for completion.Committee chairman John Brady (Sinn Féin) said the latest update makes for grim reading.“After months of delay following the last completion deadline being missed, we still do not have an agreed deadline. Put simply, we have absolutely no idea when this new hospital will open,” he said.“That is simply unacceptable for a project that has already suffered unprecedented delays and spiralling costs. Patients, families and frontline healthcare staff deserve better than continued uncertainty.”A spokesman for Bam Ireland said the hospital is in the final stages of commissioning and certification.“The specification, selection and approval of products and systems involves multiple parties throughout the project, including the NPHDB and their design team, and forms part of the overall design, review and certification process,” he said.[ Minister for Health expects State to take ownership of children’s hospital next yearOpens in new window ]“Bam continues to work closely with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children’s Health Ireland to deliver the hospital as quickly and safely as possible for the children of Ireland.”Bam has consistently denied that it has under-resourced the project, blaming late-stage design changes by the board as the reason for the delays.Earlier this month, The Irish Times revealed a conciliator rejected a near €100 million compensation claim by Bam over disputed costs incurred during construction.[ ‘Wholly and entirely insufficient’: BAM parent firm criticised over delivery of new children’s hospitalOpens in new window ]