A dispute between MIDROC Foundation Specialist and a former employee and shareholder continues even after a court closed the six-year-old legal wrangling. Although the Court ordered the company to pay the former employee 23 million Br six months ago, he claims not to have received the payment.

The legal battle between MIDROC Foundation and Achim Braun and his company Mediterranean Group EA was started in 2014, after the latter took the case to the Federal High Court, suing MIDROC Foundation. Mediterranean Group claimed that MIDROC Foundation did not deliver payments due for construction machinery rental services. While working together, the two had 86 machinery rental agreements.

For the services, MIDROC Foundation paid a little over 29 million Br but left with outstanding payments of 21.8 million Br, according to a claim filed by Mediterranean.

"However, MIDROC sent us a letter stating that the remaining payment was just 16.1 million Br," reads Mediterranean's claim. "And we requested a meeting with company management to discuss the payment, but they refused to do so."

Mediterranean also claimed that MIDROC Foundation had to pay an additional 3.9 million Br, bringing the total unpaid value to 25.86 million Br. MIDROC Foundation then paid 6.4 million Br, leaving 19.5 million Br unsettled. Mediterranean requested the Court to order the Foundation firm to settle the unpaid value along with nine percent interest.

In its statement of defense, MIDROC Foundation stated that Achim, who was previously the general manager of MIDROC Foundation, is the major shareholder at Mediterranean Group EA where he owns 98pc of shares. MIDROC Foundation's defense statement further stated that Achim owns a 20pc stake in MIDROC Foundation, which leads to a conflict of interest regarding the allotment of contracts to Mediterranean.

The contractual agreements for machinery rentals were signed between Achim and Mishame Yohannes, general manager of Mediterranean, who also happens to be Achim's spouse, according to the defense statement.

A.W. Thomas Certified Chartered Accountants, who was hired to audit the transactions, has proven a conflict of interest and that Mediterranean was hired for the contract without a proper bidding process, claims MIDROC Foundation's statement.

MIDROC Foundation, which specialises in geotechnical investigation, foundation recommendation, and design and construction of pile foundations, called for the contract's termination on the basis that the machinery rental timesheets were not authenticated and lacked clarity, thus freeing it from affecting any payments.

MIDROC Foundation likewise filed a counter claim at the Federal High Court, accusing Achim of letting Mediterranean take spare parts from MIDROC Foundation's machinery by saying that the machinery had deteriorated. It also accuses the former general manager of using the information he obtained while working at MIDROC for his personal benefit.