One-million-dollar order

Case relates to CIDA agreement for redevelopment in Sri Lanka

Four P.E.I. companies have been ordered to pay nearly $1million in court costs over a redevelopment project in Sri Lanka, a Supreme Court judge has ruled.

Those costs are to be paid by the Canadian Agro Sustainability Partnership Inc., MacArthur Group Inc., Veterinary Management Services Ltd. and Parker Potato Ltd.

And that is not the final number with regards to cost.

Supreme Court Justice Gordon Campbell also ordered that interest on that award shall accrue from the date the original judgment was issued, June 27.

Campbell also ordered the parties to pay the attorney general a further $48,270.40.

The case revolved around a contribution agreement signed in 2006 between the Canadian Agro Sustainability Partnership Inc. (CASP) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Pursuant to the agreement CASP was to prepare a redevelopment plan for an area of Sri Lanka which had been substantially destroyed by a tsunami in 2004.

By early 2008, disagreements had arisen between the parties regarding the results of an audit which reviewed the expenditures by CASP of funds received from CIDA.

In September of that year CASP commenced an action against CIDA. Three additional plaintiffs were added to the action midway through 2012.

Between Jan. 14, 2013 and June 25, 2013, the various parties spent 38 days in trial.

A large volume of materials was presented and the issues to be decided were complex.

After a series of delays a lengthy decision was issued on June 27, 2014.

The court ruled that the pith and substance of this case was the intentional and undisclosed overbilling by CASP in the invoices it submitted to CIDA.