Hyatt Hotel contractors dispute to be settled by court

Cogei, the Italian general contractor of the Warsaw Hyatt hotel has accused its Polish sub-contractors of bad quality of work and is demanding zl. 50 million compensation. Meanwhile the contractors accuse Cogei of delaying payments. The result is that the official opening of the Hyatt hotel, belonging to Cosmar Polska, will be a year later than planned, September 2002. "In reality it is only nine months, as the building was partially opened at the beginning of March. However, it still means we have suffered losses amounting to zl. 44 million," said Rigoberto Caramanica, the president of Cosmar Polska. Meanwhile of one of the companies involved in the dispute claims that Cosmar sought to construct the hotel under the minimum cost so that it could pocket the money for itself. The party further added that the Italians bore no risks as the investment was being financed by loans and with many costs being borne by the contractors. "It is important to point out that we worked with 150 partnerships and we only have a dispute with five of them," said Caramanica. The issue is to be resolved by the arbitration courts. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 8, 9) M.M.