The brother of former Finance and later Foreign Minister, constructor Bastjan Dalli, is to sue the government for the rescinded Lm1.3 million contract to build 22 apartments and 29 garages in Floriana, maltastar.com reported last night.

The government’s “experts” had certified the concrete work on the ceilings of the five-storey block of apartments and garages as defective and unsafe. Subsequently, the Housing Authority annulled Dalli’s contract and is now issuing a new call for tenders.

But Mr Dalli is complaining that government’s actions are “totally abusive” and will be suing for damages.

He claims that the work done by his company, Mixer Ltd, on the block of flats is “according to public procedures established by the Cement & Concrete Association, published in the booklet ‘concrete practices’.”

He was awarded the contract on 26 November 2002, after submitting the lowest-priced bid for the work on the Floriana housing estate.

“I started demolishing the site on 17 March 2003 and everything was moving along pre-established plans. Problems surfaced when we started working on the foundations. We found a quarry that the government architects were not aware of. I was stopped from continuing work on the site as the government had to appoint a new architect to design the whole structure again. He also had to design reinforcing structures next to the site, which was lying on soil”.

The delays meant that the costs of the project shot up. According to established procedures, Mr Dalli asked for a revision of the rates in the contract because the delays were not his fault.

“Despite my repeated requests to meet the department about the matter, we only met once in April 2006 and to date no decision has been taken. Despite all I continued with my work on the block,” Dalli said.

The government terminated the contract in June, which was the date when work was scheduled to be ready and the block of flats delivered to the government. Bastjan Dalli did not accept the government’s decision and did not remove his equipment, which blocked two streets in Floriana behind the Archbishop’s Curia. He was fined by local wardens and later had his two cranes towed away in an operation that cost over Lm1000.