Hungarian Consortium Calls Presov Hospital Contract Termination Unlawful
Presov/Bratislava, 19 June (TASR) - The Hungarian members of the consortium that began construction of the new hospital in Presov continue to regard the termination of their contract as "unlawful, unjustified and premature", and maintain that the concrete columns which led to the contract being cancelled meet the strength requirements set out in the project documentation, citing an expert assessment commissioned by the consortium, TASR was told by Zsanett Szikszai on behalf of the consortium comprising West Hungaria Bau, Magyar Epito and Confector Mernokiroda.
The consortium also disputes further financial claims made by the client and says it remains open to an out-of-court settlement while being prepared to defend its position in court.
The companies noted that the technical inspection of the concrete structures built on site had been carried out by the Slovak University of Technology (STU) in Bratislava. According to the consortium, it received an extract from the report, together with the notice of contract termination, in mid-May.
"The preliminary expert report by STU Bratislava, based exclusively on non-destructive tests (which, under Slovak technical standards, have only indicative rather than evidential value), concluded that the concrete strength of the examined columns did not correspond to the C50/60 class specified in the contract and project documentation," the consortium said, adding that it had not received the full expert report despite repeated requests.
The consortium also commissioned a technical assessment from an accredited laboratory at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. According to that assessment, the surface defects are cosmetic in nature, have no impact on the load-bearing capacity of the structure, and all identified deviations can be remedied.
At the end of April, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) announced that construction had been suspended following quality inspections of the building's structural elements.
Later in May, he specified that problematic columns that could not be repaired would be removed and replaced, while the remaining ones would undergo remediation.
After cooperation with the contracted builder was terminated, a new group of companies took over the project. The ministry has launched a public tender for the second phase of construction.
This week, Kalinak reported that work on the hospital was continuing and that damaged columns were being removed. He also said discussions were ongoing with the former contractor regarding the settlement of contractual obligations, acknowledging that the dispute could ultimately be resolved in court.
Police have opened a criminal investigation with respect to the construction project on suspicion of the crime of public endangerment.
