Work on a government project to install solar panels at the National Sports Centre is set to be completed by the summer, more than two years behind schedule and hundreds of thousands of dollars over-budget.

Atlantic Energy Solutions Group first signed a letter of intent with the Government to take on the $3.2 million project in 2018 after it submitted a bid and said it had funding in place to cover construction costs.

Shortly afterwards, AESG owner and chief executive Damon Wade was appointed chairman of the Progressive Labour Party.

The initiative was then mothballed for almost 18 months until May 2021 when the Government formally authorised AESG to start work. The project was expected to be up and running by January 2022.

But the NSC was forced to take out a bank loan to fund the work after AESG confirmed that it no longer had the finances to break ground.

There was further controversy when trustees of the NSC board claimed that Jaché Adams, a government MP and chairman of the board at the time, authorised the loan without the board’s knowledge or support.

Mr Adams later dismissed those allegations.

Bank records show that two payments totalling almost $1 million were made by the NSC to AESG in June 2021, although construction did not start until August 2022

Yesterday, Craig Tyrrell, the NSC’s operations manager, said that the system should be operational by June. He added that supply-chain issues had resulted in delays.

“We can now confirm that these components have been sourced and are being shipped to Bermuda,” he said.

“We have been informed that the back order items are being shipped the first week of February and should take approximately four weeks to arrive. The last shipment of items are being tested by the manufacturer this week and due to ship shortly.

“The last shipment is expected to arrive within six to eight weeks and the tentative arrival date of the final shipment is March. It is anticipated that the final phase of the project will be completed during the first quarter of the fiscal year.”

Mr Tyrrell said that the final cost of the project had risen by 11 per cent — about $350,000.

He said: “The rise in cost relates to materials critical to the completion of the project and, as such, additional payments have been made by the NSC in the interest of completing this critical project.

“We can confirm in addition to various materials being placed on back order and impacting completion of project, cost has risen for certain items. The rise in cost is not unique to this project and is centred around factors that have impacted the global cost of building supplies.

“The rising costs of materials has been a global occurrence enhanced by a number of factors such as rising energy cost, shortages of certain raw materials and global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic. A sustained global rise in cost of certain materials coincided with the commencement of this project.”

Mr Tyrrell said that the terms of its 2021 bank loan had not changed and that AESG was paid only when certain parts of the project were completed.

He said: “As per previous notices, the public would be aware that the NSC solar energy project has been financed via a loan facility in the amount of $3.2 million, which was signed in May 2021.

“To date, drawdowns on the loan facility have been made for payment to the vendor related to works completed. The loan facility remains unchanged and at the original amount. All payments to the vendor remain aligned with the terms of each drawdown that is associated with a percentage of completed work.

“We wish to make clear that the vendor for the project has not been paid any additional funds. Additional payments made by the NSC have been directly paid to the manufacturers of various critical materials.

“The NSC annually assesses its capital needs and, as such, felt it most critical to realign our capital investments into the facility to ensure this critical project be brought to a conclusion soon as possible.”