Rio breaks contract with companies responsible for Olympic venues

01/15/2016 - 10h15

Less than seven months ahead of the Olympics, the Rio de Janeiro City Hall clashed with iBeg Engenharia, a contractor who was leading two projects that are behind schedule for the Games, which will take place in August.

	Cristiano Andujar/cbtenis
	The Olympic Tennis Centre, which is 90% ready, should be ready by September last year

Rio City Hall has canceled the contract related to the building of the Olympic Tennis Centre, which is 90% ready, and fined the consortium iBeg/Tangram/Damiani in R$ 11 million ($ 2,7 million) due to "non-completion of the building work". The City Hall has also notified the company about delays in the refurbishment of the Equestrian Center.

The contractor claims that since the beginning of the contract, in July 2014, the City Hall hasn't paid its invoices in full. iBeg Engenharia also states that there was a delay in the delivery of the projects for the execution of the building work.
 
The Tennis Center should be ready by September last year.
 
According to city officials, after the tennis test event from last December, the building site did not show any significant progress. This week, 356 workers were laid off without receiving severance pay.
 
Mayor Eduardo Paes (PMDB) said that the venues will be ready for the Olympic Games. The City Hall will hire another contractor, without bidding, to finish the job.
 
In a statement, the consortium said that is "totally astonished" by the decision, which is not "justifiable", and revealed that it will seek damages.
 
A court from Rio granted an injunction to iBeg to prevent that the contract involving the Equestrian Center is also terminated by the City Hall.

Translated by CLÁUDIA GONÇALVES

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