Government is seeking leave to appeal a Commercial Court decision that could leave taxpayers on the hook for more than $22 million for a sewage treatment plant that was never built, according to court documents.
The appeal stems from government’s breach of two contracts it signed with Global Water Associates on Sept. 19, 2006.
The first contract was a $2.68 million no-bid deal for Global to design, build and install a plant in Paraquita Bay capable of processing 250,000 gallons of wastewater per day.
The other contract was amuch more lucrative 12-year operating agreement, which would have paid Global $20 per thousand gallons of treated waste during that time period.
Global claims that government’s breach of the two contracts caused the firm damages estimated at more than $22 million, according to a “case summary” drafted by company attorneys at the law firm O’Neal Webster in 2012.
However, when the dispute went to a three-person arbitration panel in 2014, the panel ruled that Global should be compensated only for government’s breach of the $2.68 million design-and-build contract.
It is unclear how much money would have been awarded by the arbitrators, as Global appealed the case to the Commercial Court before they had decided the value of the firm’s claim.
See the June 2, 2016 edition for full coverage.
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