NewsWhore
07-08-2008, 05:30 PM
Public Works Minister Victor Diaz Rua says the contract with Codasa, the company building the San Pedro de Macoris-La Romana highway project, will be voided because the company has violated the construction agreement. According to El Caribe, the Minister took action after reading a company letter that said they would be selling the concession for US$111 million to a Brazilian and Colombian company.
Diaz said the original contract was for completion of the highway in 30 months, but the company has been working for seven years and has still not finished the road. Diaz said that at the rate they are going, it would take them another seven years to finish the project, as reported in El Nacional.
Diaz argued that the delays have occurred because the company has been building the highway using the funds from the tollbooths on Autopista Las Americas when they should have been using their own funds to meet project deadlines. He explained on the Nuria and Huchi Lora afternoon talk show that with the present state of affairs, Codasa would have been paid for their work once the roadway was finished, but would still be able to continue collecting tolls for the next 30 years.
"They have the most important concession in the country and when they complete the road they will not have to pay anything because at the end the money produced by the three tolls will be all theirs even if they have not invested anything, and that does not make sense," said Diaz Rua. He estimated the tolls collected at Las Americas expressway at RD$20 million a month, or RD$1.68 billion over the seven-year period. The money is also being used for road maintenance.
Diaz says that the government will finish the project using funds from the Las Americas tolls. He added that a group of lawyers has been assembled to represent the DR in an arbitration court in New York.
The local press has yet to report on the Codasa position.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
Diaz said the original contract was for completion of the highway in 30 months, but the company has been working for seven years and has still not finished the road. Diaz said that at the rate they are going, it would take them another seven years to finish the project, as reported in El Nacional.
Diaz argued that the delays have occurred because the company has been building the highway using the funds from the tollbooths on Autopista Las Americas when they should have been using their own funds to meet project deadlines. He explained on the Nuria and Huchi Lora afternoon talk show that with the present state of affairs, Codasa would have been paid for their work once the roadway was finished, but would still be able to continue collecting tolls for the next 30 years.
"They have the most important concession in the country and when they complete the road they will not have to pay anything because at the end the money produced by the three tolls will be all theirs even if they have not invested anything, and that does not make sense," said Diaz Rua. He estimated the tolls collected at Las Americas expressway at RD$20 million a month, or RD$1.68 billion over the seven-year period. The money is also being used for road maintenance.
Diaz says that the government will finish the project using funds from the Las Americas tolls. He added that a group of lawyers has been assembled to represent the DR in an arbitration court in New York.
The local press has yet to report on the Codasa position.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)