After an emergency meeting with the government on site on Friday, Magil Construction is to resume work on the Olembé Sports Complex in Cameroon on Monday, according to the Montreal contractor and the country’s Ministry of Sports.
The company had however announced in December that it would abandon the site, in a letter to the authorities. The Press reported on Monday how the situation has degenerated between the firm and the country’s government since the award of the soccer stadium contract without a call for tenders in 2020.
Magil and Cameroon have “put a platform in place to iron out all differences”, explains to The Press Cyrille Tollo, an adviser to the Minister of Sports Narcisse Mouelle Kombi.
In a letter to the Prime Minister’s office made public, the minister had criticized Magil for wanting to “spoil” Cameroon. According to him, the contractor received 42 billion CFA francs (more than 90 million dollars), or three quarters of the sums planned, but only carried out 1.3% of the work to be done to complete the complex. Olembe.
Yaoundé also affirms that the Quebec firm keeps in its accounts the equivalent of nearly 9 million dollars that the State lent it to advance the work. “Magil holds public funds, and these public funds will be recovered by any legal means. We do not rule out legal action against Magil,” said Councilor Tollo in the report by The Press.
The entrepreneur then defended himself in his own letter to the Prime Minister by condemning “media sabotage” allegedly orchestrated by the Minister of Sports by making public comments “slanderous and unworthy of a high representative of the State”.
Magil reiterated that she has no choice but to withdraw from the project, since the government has not paid her since July 2021.
Saga around a soccer stadium
Cameroon initially entrusted the construction of Olembé to the Piccini group. In 2019, this Italian entrepreneur had already erected the bulk of the stadium in the heart of the sports complex. However, he stopped the work, claiming 28 billion CFA francs in unpaid invoices after cost overruns.
The government refused, then withdrew the contract, before awarding it without a call for tenders to Magil in January 2020.
The Montreal contractor completed the Olembé soccer stadium in disaster for the African Cup of Nations, which took place in this country in early 2022. The rest of the sports equipment provided for in the contract – a gymnasium, an Olympic swimming pool, basketball, volleyball and handball stadiums, as well as four tennis courts – never came out of the ground, however.
Since 2021, the Ministry of Sports has required detailed explanations of its invoices before resuming payments.
For his part, Magil affirms in his letter that officials supposed to approve his accounts payable to Olembé made him requests for payment of “compensation” and “acquisition of vehicles”. The company claims to have always refused.
After the crisis caused by the exchange of unfriendly letters on both sides, Magil’s senior vice-president in charge of international projects, Franck Mathière, visited the Olembé site with the Minister of Sports on Friday. .
The Montreal company has agreed to resume work at the end of this visit.
Contacted for comment, Franck Mathière and his bosses in Quebec did not respond to our questions.