Hoteliers  want “hotel hospital“ cleaning contract halted

The    Panama Hotel Association (Apatel )has called for the immediate suspension of the “unacceptable contract signed by the Ministry of Health (Minsa) for  laundry service and cleaning of rooms of hotel-hospitals where patients with Covid-19 are lodged.

 The association accused the authorities of allowing sanitary regulations to be breached, in  the premises of its members.

“It is unacceptable that companies without a track record, without equipment and without following the strict sanitary protocols that the Ministry of Health itself requires, operate from our facilities in conditions of little transparency,” Apatel said in a statement, in which it repudiates the direct contract of the Minsa to Sicarelle Holdings, Inc.

“Our discomfort increases because despite the fact that a large group of hotels have ceded their facilities without covering their costs to the medical and security authorities, they have never made the agreed payments, plunging these hotels into a deep crisis of non-payment to third parties that threatens their existence. 

In addition to constituting a violation of the agreed terms, this discourages other hotels from joining the initiative, thereby affecting the nation and especially the Covid-19 patients, “says Apatel.

The current Vice Minister of Tourism, Denis Guillén , was a director of Sicarelle Holding from November 2017 to June 2019. A month before joining the Government he left the company.

Since the first contagion was announced in Panama, on March 9, numerous hotels offered their facilities to house the sick, at the request of thPanama Tourism Authority (ATP) The agreements do not include the provision of cleaning, laundry and food services by the participating hotels.

 “In each of the negotiations held with our members, the authorities appealed to the need to be ‘in solidarity’, citing the lack of budget for this purpose by the nation,” Apatel said

As of Wednesday, July 15, there were 1,315 hotel-hospital rooms available for patients. Currently, about 670 sick people area staying.

The Minsa agreed with the hoteliers to pay a rate of $15 per night of room occupied, plus 50% of electricity consumption. The rate does not include the cleaning or disinfection of rooms or the washing of clothes, a service that was awarded to Sicarelle Holding, a company that, in order to comply with this contract, uses State assets and fails to comply with sanitary protocols  a La Prensa investigation revealed.

“We repudiate that a company whose experience is cleaning offices and premises has been contracted to provide laundry and cleaning services for hotel bedding and clothing infected by the virus, particularly from facilities owned by third parties,” says. Apatel. in its statement.

The union asks the authorities for exemplary sanctions for those who fail to comply with sanitary measures in hotel facilities and to open an expedited bidding process for services provided by third parties, to ensure reasonable and competitive costs for the country.

It also requests the immediate payment of outstanding debts with hotels contracted as patient shelters. Apatel did not specify the amount of the debt, but asks its members “to refrain from entering into agreements that do not ensure public transparency in the provision of outsourced services contracted by the authorities.”