FCC Cedes Hospital Work Contract And Will Return Money To Panama Star979

The Spanish construction company FCC has assigned the contract for the construction of a million-dollar hospital work in Panama to be completed by local companies and will return 1.2 million dollars to the contracting Social Security Fund (CSS), the health institution reported this Friday.

It is the Ciudad de la Salud project, still unfinished, that FCC was awarded in 2012 for an amount of 587.5 million dollars that, after several addenda, has risen to at least 769.54 million dollars.

The delays in the works led to a legal dispute between the Spanish construction company and the CSS that arrived, about a year ago, at international request.

End of relationship with FCC
The Panamanian government reported last Wednesday that the parties reached an agreement after which FCC “leaves the work and withdraws the arbitration agreement against Panama for differences over the contract before the International Chamber of Commerce that amounted to 175 million dollars.”

“We ended the relationship with the contractor, they gave up the contract, we did not pay them anything, and on the contrary, they returned 1.2 million dollars to the Social Security Fund,” the director said in a statement this Friday. of the CSS, Enrique Lau Cortés.

The director of Social Security added that “the elements of risk for hidden damages are covered by a bond of 33.9 million dollars, plus another of 140 million that is still in force and that will be maintained at the end of the work.”

After the Executive’s endorsement of the agreement between the CSS and FCC, “now it is necessary to sign the transaction agreement and submit it to the endorsement of the General Comptroller of the Republic, to proceed with the entry of those who are going to continue with the work, who have to comply with the same requirements of the original contract, “said Lau Cortés.

According to official information, Mapfre Panamá SA, as guarantor of the contract that originated the Ciudad de la Salud project, proposed the Panamanian consortium formed by Constructora Rigaservices, SA; Aprocosa (Administración de Proyectos de Construcción, SA) and CMG (Construction Management Group, SA), which “will continue the execution of the contract with all the rights and obligations derived from it.”

The consortium, which obtained a financing of 500 million dollars, will resume the works next November and will execute a work schedule divided into four phases with a final delivery date in March 2024, a statement from the Panamanian Presidency said last Wednesday.