Filenews 3 October 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
The delay in the start and completion of the works for the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (MENN) of the Makarios Hospital is growing, and along with the delay, the cost is rising.
After the termination of the contract with the contractor, who finally declared his inability to carry out his obligations under the contract he had signed with OKYPY, the Organization, as the parliamentary committee on Health was informed, will proceed with the announcement of a new tender with the difference that the cost for the project now rises to at least €6 million from €4 million that had been calculated in the first tender.
Discussions about the new NICU had begun in 2019. OKYPY proceeded with the award of the first bid and proceeded with the relevant announcements in January 2025. The contractor proceeded with the configuration of the construction site and its fencing, however, by June 2025 the work has not even begun.
In May 2025, OKYPY informed the Parliament that initially the delay was due to interventions by the Fire Service, which had requested additional measures aimed at enhancing the safety of hospitalized and professionals. Subsequently, however, and while the recommendations of the Fire Service were taken into account and included in the planning, the work still stagnated.
Last June, OKYPY was summoned again to the Parliament informing of its intention to terminate the contract due to the contractor's inability to carry out the project.
From June until today, as mentioned yesterday during the meeting of the Parliament's Health Committee, the termination of the contract was achieved, when on July 21 the contractor himself expressed his intention to leave. At the same time, as stated by the president of the board of directors of OKYPY, Marinos Kallis, "the Organization managed, without any legal issues, to recover all the guarantees amounting to €1.3 million and it is expected that at the end of October it will also recover the construction site."
At the end of next April, as Mr. Kallis mentioned, "it is expected that a new tender will be announced so that the project can be awarded to a new contractor and the award of the tender is scheduled for mid-July 2026". Based on the planning so far, he added, "the timeline for the delivery of the project is set for September 2027."
What the president of OKYPY said, caused the reaction of members of the parliamentary committee on Health, who argued that with the new planning of OKYPY, there will be an even greater delay in the delivery of the NICU, with all that this entails for children and their families. At the same time, they reminded that for the purposes of the construction site, part of the existing parking lot used by cancer patients of the adjacent Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center has also been occupied.
The MPs also wondered about the reasons why the announcement of the new tender is scheduled for the end of April 2026 since, as they said, it is a repetition of the first tender and should not need much preparation.
The reaction of the representatives of the "Baby Miracles" Association was also intense, who argued that "for a tender, the documents of which are ready from the previous announcement, in the period of 8 months, until April 2026, that is, cannot be justified. Everything we hear today is only dates, verbal and does not convince us."
How OKYPY responds to the reactions
The executive director of OKYPY, Kypros Stavrides, responded to the reactions, saying: "As an Organization we have made very careful moves, very careful legal handling for this and we have recovered all the guarantees. We are trying to complete the process with the contractor and to terminate this cooperation in the best way, without any other problems, because you must know that the contractor had also proceeded to terminate the contract in Court, so, all this time we had to deal with this issue as well."
The new announcement, Mr. Stavridis continued, "is scheduled for April, because firstly, we have not yet recovered the construction site and in addition some of the documents must be changed since, as we have already mentioned, specific changes must be made. In other words, some things are added. This whole process obliges us to take some actions that require time."
The cost, in the new offer, said Mr. Stavridis, "is estimated at €6 million. while the previous offer was for €4 million."
