An Australian-owned plumbing company that botched work at a new Christchurch Hospital building owes a significant amount of money for contractual breaches.
PHP NZ Ltd was placed into liquidation last June owing more than $1.1 million to Inland Revenue for overdue PAYE and GST and another $600,000 to unsecured creditors.
The company had been working on the new Christchurch Hospital Hagley building and the convention centre Te Pae, both of which are being built by head contractor CPB Contractors. PHP's contract for the convention centre was terminated before the company was placed into liquidation.
Stuff previously reported several pipe brands not approved for use in the hospital project had been installed in the building, breaching consent conditions. After the issue was discovered, contractors were forced to rip out and replace non-approved pipes.
In the second liquidator's report, released on January 30, the liquidators said PHP had "failed to meet its requirements under the contracts and now owes the head contractors significant monies due to the breaches incurred". The amount was not included in the report as a claim. CPB has been approached for comment.
The liquidators have yet to pay any preferential or unsecured creditors, saying in the report it was not yet possible to "provide a definitive statement as to whether assets will be realised for the purposes of making payment to any class of creditor".
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As a result of their investigations, the liquidators contacted authorities in Australia to pass on their concerns about the former directors of PHP NZ, Australians Paul Hutchins and Sean Capes. The report said the former directors were declared bankrupt in Australia but continued to "control" the New Zealand company "during their bankruptcies".
Despite repeated attempts, the liquidators said they could not contact the named director, Carlo Pagnozzi.
New Zealand law prevents undischarged bankrupts, and people banned from running companies overseas, from being a director of a New Zealand company.
A Companies Office spokeswoman said the office had not received any complaints regarding PHP NZ.
Capes and Hutchins both stepped down as directors in November 2017. Earlier that year, a related company they controlled in Australia, PHP Contractors, was placed into liquidation owing millions of dollars.
In 2016, Australian media reported PHP Contractors had been operating illegally on a Commonwealth Games site for a month after their licence was suspended by the local building regulator.
Stuff has attempted to contact both Capes and Hutchins. Hutchins had been based in New Zealand, but it is unclear whether he remains in the country or has returned to Australia.
The Christchurch Hospital Hagley building was built at a cost of around $500m and originally meant to be finished in 2018. The Ministry of Health expects to hand the building over to the Canterbury District Health Board in the first half of this year.
