OPINION: A catastrophy in the making

The Amador Convention Center, a fundamental piece in the country’s tourism plan, faces new adversity. It is an absurd amount of structural failures that the contractor, a Chinese-Panamanian consortium, has not been able to correct even though the work is already 80% complete. This project was one of the pharaonic works that began the government of Ricardo Martinelli and that the current administration, inherited with a lot of situations that had to be resolved. But nothing justifies that, at this time, when it should have been delivered in December of last year, we learned that its construction is plagued by inefficiencies in concrete, steel and even in the fire system. How did we get to this point without the authorities warning about this irresponsibility, that could not only cost millions of dollars to the treasury but also risk the 25 thousand people that can house this structure? Situations like this undermine the confidence that the State can make timely decisions guaranteeing the public interest, even when it comes to thorny issues. Hopefully, this is not another example of what starts badly, ends badly. –LA PRENSA Feb.18

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