OPINION: A $44.5 million absurdity
If there is something absurd in this pandemic, it is the decision to garrison members of the National Police in hotels. This decision has cost the Treasury – that is, all of us – the sum of $44.5 million. To get an idea of what such spending means, consider that repairing and rebuilding the damage caused by hurricanes last year in 133 critical areas in the west of the country would have cost about $45 million. Or the new Almirante hospital –in Bocas del Toro– that will cost $41.5 million, that is, $3 million less, work of 20,000 square meters, whose price includes studies, designs, plans, biomedical equipment, furniture, preventive maintenance for three years-, a water ambulance and a dock for patients in the insular area. It seems that when making these decisions the last thing you think about is cost, practical utility, viable alternatives, or reasonable use of money. The rulers that we have do not administer public affairs. Those who govern us are a bunch of incompetent people who do not know what to do with public funds, except to squander them or steal them through bribery. A humble family man would act with much more prudence than this bunch of politicians.- LA PRENSA, Nov. 1
