Astaldi says delays, setbacks common from the start of Muskrat Falls project

Representatives for the company that landed the heftiest contract to buildMuskrat Falls' generation stationtestified Wednesday that they dealt with delays and struggled to reach construction targets from the get-go.

Mauro Palumbo, a manager in Astaldi Canada's legal and contracts department, said the company wanted to have the deal in place for the power house, spillway and dams by June of 2013 in order to get things moving before the harsh winter kicked in.

That didn't happen. Instead the deal was signed in late November, the start of the cold Labradorwinter.

Days before Astaldi managers inked the dotted line, an experienced project leaderwarned hiscompany not to sign with Nalcor because the delay for the offer made it impossible to reach established milestone dates.

Palumbo says the advice wasn't followed, because there was a lot of money on the table, and their relationship with Nalcor was solid.

"Some principle of cooperation, good faith, goodwill ... in order to achieve the target, was feasible with this client," Palumbo said.

But Nalcor inquiry lawyer Dan Simmons asked why Astaldi would sign an agreement committing itself to construction targets knowing they couldn't reach them.

"At that point,Astaldi had not told anyone at Nalcor that they did not believe that they could meet those dates?" he asked.

"I don't know the answer. I told you before I had not direct contact with Nalcor, therefore I cannot give you an answer," Palumbo responded.

As the powerhouse contract deal was signed, there were other signals the "solid" relationship wasn't as cozy as it perhaps appeared.

Inquiry counsel Barry Learmouth pointed to the timea top Astaldi official landed in St. John's and someone met him at the airport with flowers.

"The honeymoon didn't last very long, did it?" Learmouth asked.

"These flowers had a short life," Palumbo replied, smiling.

The inquiry will resume Thursday.

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