The Dublin International Arena Limited (Dial) consortium that received the contract to build the €62 mln worth National Aquatic Centre in Dublin now is planning to seek €40 million in compensation from the Ireland government – the amount 4 times greater than the compensation previously claimed by the consortium. It became known from sources close to the Dial consortium that it planned to pursue the case for damages for the allegedly wrongful award of the contract to the Waterworld/Rohcon consortium, comprised of construction firm Rohcon, Dublin Waterworld and Waterworld UK. The last one is said to be just a €4 shelf company owned by the Ealing Trading Corporation, a British Virgin Islands company whose beneficial owners are not known.
In February 2002, CSID awarded the contract to design, build, operate, and manage the centre to the Waterworld/Rohcon consortium, while the Dial consortium’s bid ranked second in the competition organised by CSID.
In May 2002, Dial applied for a judicial review of the decision to award the contract to Waterworld/Rohcon, based on the claim that Waterworld did not meet technical and financial requirements set out in the original tender request. CSID rejected Dial’s claims, but Dial argued that its suspicions are supported by a report published by the former Attorney General, Michael McDowell, in March 2002.
Some days ago, the High Court Justice Susan Denham held that Campus Stadium Ireland (CSID), the state-owned company that commissioned the National Aquatic Centre, had not been entitled to hold the Dial consortium for security of costs. Also, she blamed the state for the delay in bringing the application for security of costs which, as she said, impaired the effective implementation of EU Directives on the award of public contracts.