The Boquete Panama Polyclinic Construction is Halted Once Again
CSS dissolved the contract and the consortium is appealing the decision before the Public Procurement Tribunal.
The Social Security Fund (CSS) administratively terminated the contract it had with the Alca-Ger consortium for the reactivation of the Boquete polyclinic; however, the companies decided to appeal the decision. Through the forensic firm Morales & Associates, the consortium, made up of the companies Alca Holding International, INC. and Ingeniería GER, SA, filed the appeal before the Administrative Court of Public Procurement (TACP), this Thursday, March 19. Thus, the termination of the contract by the CSS is suspended until there is a ruling from the court.
The measure adopted by the CSS was due to the consortium’s alleged breach of its contractual obligations by not delivering the completed project on the indicated date, which was December 22, 2025. In addition to terminating the contract, the CSS barred the consortium from participating in the institution’s tenders for four years. The contract signed with Alca-Ger was for $9.2 million and was endorsed by the Comptroller General on June 21, 2023. The Boquete polyclinic is one of the last projects that were halted by past administrations and is still pending.
In its defense, the consortium requested that the TACP declare the CSS resolution null and void due to a violation of due process, that it be rendered ineffective, and that the violated right be restored. The new polyclinic in Boquete began construction during the administration of Guillermo Sáez Llorens; however, during the government of Juan Carlos Varela, the work was halted. This would be the second time, should the TACP rule in favor of the CSS, that a contractor has failed to build the health facility. The first was the company Riva, SA, whose contract was cancelled for non-compliance with a project that should have been completed in 2014.
2 Consortiums have failed to complete the construction of the Boquete polyclinic.
2023 The year in which the contract with Alca-Ger was signed, which the CSS terminated due to non-compliance.
