(Then24.com) Since 2019 more than 500 students high school of the Sotero González Pedagogical Unitlocated in Desamparados, San José, They are waiting for the school to be finished that they have been needing for years, since the population reached the point that the institution can no longer receive students.
“Right now we are a pedagogical unit, that means that we have high school students up to ninth and Right now the enrollment in the third cycle is 513 students, imagine that a school has less enrollment than us, so it is no longer possible to absorb the population of the third cycle in the institution that I direct (…) that is why the school part is being segregated from that of the pedagogical unit, so by the time that school, God first, is finished, the entire secondary part moves to that one and we stay until the second cycle”, explained Martín Guzmán, director of the Sotero Pedagogical Unit Gonzalez.
A pedagogical unit is an educational center that receives students who are in I, II and III cycle, that is, primary and secondary up to the ninth year. According to Guzman, the problem of locative capacity is presented by the little educational offer in secondary that the community has of San Juan de Dios de Desamparados.
Start of construction in 2018
The construction of the educational center began in 2018 with the trust fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in accordance with the Final Work Report “CR-L1053: Construction and Equipment of Educational Infrastructure”, the construction project was in charge of the JCB-Rock Constructions consortium.
The final report of the Program Executing Unit (CALVI+FSA Consortium) details that this project was the biggest they had to execute among 103 educational centers that were within the “Banco Nacional-Ministry of Public Education Trust Law No. 9124”.
“Since September 2019, a significant reduction in progress and in the personnel on site was detected. Due to this alert, weekly meetings were scheduled with the Consortium representative to further follow up on their obligation to catch up with the construction process,” the report states.
New educational center will be located in San Juan de Dios de Desamparados. Photo: Municipality of Desamparados.
The construction project of the school began in 2018, and the Delivery of the work was scheduled to be completed in December 2019; however, by October 1, reports of a lag of approximately 9 weeks were submitted, which buried any possibility that construction would be completed on time and in the proper manner by 2019.
“The possibility of completing the missing work by December as indicated was no longer evident, although there was a high possibility of finishing within the term of the Law that existed at that time, June 23, 2020,” the document states. .
The Consortium’s lack of liquidity increased, they reached the point that they had problems facing their contractual responsibility with the personnel they had on site, and the progress of the works in their last stage was reduced to a minimum.
“It was not possible for them to provide resources to the project to reactivate the activities, and thus there was no way that they could meet the execution deadline. In December 2019, the Supervision Firm hired by the trust records in the CFIA log that the project is paralyzed“, is detailed in the report.
works in limbo
According to the Program Supervisory Unit (USP), in charge of officials of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) “the date of contractual termination under the policies of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), was communicated on July 3, 2020 with effect as of July 6, 2020”.
According to UPS, in light of the consortium’s breach, the trust made the decision “to terminate the contract under the policies of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).”
At the moment, The MEP has ₡15,555 million to implement seven projects, including this educational center, the amount was approved in the V extraordinary budget of the Republic, on August 31, 2021.
Despite the fact that there is already a budget to resume the works, It is not yet known which company will resume the project, this was indicated by USP to Then24.com.
“That is not defined to date (in reference to the company that would be in charge of the work), because is in the process of public procurement“, detailed by USP, they also indicated that they will resume the works for the month of July of this year and they plan to deliver it at the end of the first semester 2024.
What happened to the indicated consortium?
According to the final report of the trust’s UEP, the tender for the work was won by the consortium formed by the companies JCB and Rock Constructions. The award of the project was published in the official newspaper La Gaceta on Friday, May 5, 2017. At that time, Juan Carlos Bolaños appeared as proxy and signed a contract with Banco Nacional (who administered the trust) where it was detailed that the work it had a value of $7,754,626.58 million.
According to statements by Lourdes Fernández, director of the Trust Department of Banco Nacional, By September 2017, Bolaños assigned the economic rights of the contract to Grupo Asesor Terranova SA
This means of communication consulted Juan Carlos Bolaños about the separation of the consortium and his opinion in the mention of JCB in the final report, Bolaños expressed the following: “I have never participated in the project, neither in the administration, nor in the constitution. Neither I nor my represented. From the beginning of the works, I gave up all my rights that were derived from said consortium, in order not to be part of the execution of the works”.
Then24.com he tried to contact the second company in the consortium, Rock Constructions, by telephone; however, calls were not answered.
