Gozo pool dropped from Small Nations Games after deadline missed again

The organisers of this May’s Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) being held in Malta have had to drop plans to make use of a new Olympic-sized indoor pool in Gozo since the project has completely missed its deadlines.

Originally planned to open its doors in 2021, the Gozo Ministry had assured the event’s organisers last year that the project would be completed in time for May’s games.

But the pledge remains unfulfilled once again as the pool, which has already overshot its original €9 million budget by some €7 million, is still nowhere near to being completed.

It is expected that the project will set taxpayers back at least twice its original budget by the time of its completion, whenever that may be.

The Shift understands that SportMalta – the government entity organising the games in conjunction with the Malta Olympic Committee, had abandoned plans for the new Gozo pool and that all aquatic competitions will be held in Malta – either at the National Pool at the Tal-Qroqq Sports Complex or the new facility being built in Cottonera.

Originally approved in 2012, the construction of an Olympic-sized pool in Gozo to form part of the Sports Complex in Victoria was originally to have been completed by 2014.

But plans were changed every time a new Gozo Minster was appointed since then, with works having only started in 2019 and with a new completion date of 2021.

A tender for the pool’s design, construction and finishings was awarded in 2017 for a total price of €9.1 million.

While the new facility was meant to have been an extension of the original sports complex,  the project morphed into the dismantling and re-building of the entire complex – including the relatively newly refurbished sports hall – which increased costs exponentially to the tune of several million euros.

The main beneficiary of the additional works is Poliexcel Construction – a partnership between Charles Polidano, aka Ic-Caqnu, Turkish national  Kor Kurt Akin, and James Fenech.

Another new tender for more finishing works was issued last year but it is still to be awarded. This will further extend the project’s completion date.

Asked a few weeks ago to indicate a date for the pool’s completion, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri refrained from committing to a new deadline.