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They sent the letter. They lost ÂŁ4.4 million anyway
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You know what I like saying. The most expensive piece of infrastructure is not a tunnel. It is not a bridge. It is the Send button. Welcome to Northern Ireland. Project Omega. A 25-year PFI plant for wastewater and sludge treatment. The SPV, Glen Water, put a £4.4 million claim. The issue? Failures by Northern Ireland Water to meet its obligations for an existing incinerator. Typical… the client not meeting expectations… And this is what everything stats to be interesting. There had been correspondence. There had been meetings. Even monthly reports… There was even a letter dated 20 October 2009. Glen Water argued that the letter had notified the claim. In 2017, the court disagreed. Apparently, the letter included other claims about cooling water, and it did not properly notify the claim being pursued. In Spanish, that’s a popurri. Dumping stuff letter. At the end… the notice under the contract was not properly submitted. Bye, bye… 4.4 million. Take the popcorns and imagine explaining that at the Board. “We wrote to them.” Yes. “We discussed it in meetings.” Yes. “They knew there was a problem.” Yes. “And the money?” Well… This is why I get nervous when someone says: “It’s just a letter.” Before you send… give me a call. And remember… The Send button is free. But… the consequences have their own pricing model.
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Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
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