The stoppage of works that are being built since the last administration could be generating more than $ 80 million in losses to the Panamanian State.
The cessation of these megaprojects causes what is known as 'buried funds', which should be generating revenue by providing a service, explained economist Juan Jované.
The works that are paralyzed amount to about 1,000 million dollars and are calculated by a minimum interest rate of 0.35%, thus about the losses would be some $ 35 million per year, which multiplied by 2.5, would be about some 84 million dollars.
Among the works that are being put to halt are hospitals as the maternal and child, Tambo, province of Coclé; the first cold chain, at least two sports cities, the city of the arts, as well as two markets, the Judicial City in La Chorrera, a waste plant in Chitré, among others.
One of the works that suffered the suspension by this Administration was the city hospital, now called the city of health, whose construction began in 2012.
The first part of the project was due to be delivered in 2015, and the second in 2016, however none of this happened.
Nevertheless, in 2014, when the Government of Varela began, the advance on the works was about 33%. Two years and half after his management, only up to 46% progress has been made.
Another of the works that was reactivated is the construction of the center of conventions of Amador, after more than year and half of being paralyzed.
In addition to this, many of the projects being developed by the President Varela correspond to initiatives that were almost already in progress from the last administration, such is the case of lines 2 and 3 of the Metro of Panama.
For jurist and expert in public procurement, Ernesto Cedeño, with the stoppage of these works a damage to the national treasury could be made, only by making these projects put to halt.
"No work should be paralyzed beyond internal audits that are made or due to problems with the contractor, but once resolved, the works should continue", said the lawyer.
What cannot be allowed, he added, is that any damage to the national treasury is made due to this situation, which is what is happening because so far an administration, in this case of Martinelli, invested in works and as Varela came into power all of them were frozen, leaving in suspense the money invested, something that should not have happened.
The lawyer added that the most tangible example of the paralyzed works is the Health City project on which a large investment has been made, however this Government has left it forsaken.
The procurement expert added that any government that comes to power after the upcoming elections could initiate criminal proceedings against this administration for the suspension of these projects, because this money is being badly invested and the works were not executed.
Meanwhile, as to the economic impact that this situation could have to the country, lawyer Ernesto Cedeño said that it would be very difficult to measure and in effort to calculate this audits and financial studies would need to be carried out, which could take several years.
For economist and Minister of Economy and Finance from the last administration, Frank de Lima, the cessation of these large works, which began in the Government of President Ricardo Martinelli, by the current Government, can be described as a "political meanness".
"Large works that were in process of execution, such as the city hospital, the cold chain, the conventions center of Amador, the different hospitals and Minsa Capsis, are being kept motionless without any type of justification", said De Lima.
The former Minister added that something that the authorities have not measured is that due to that halt in the works additional costs will be caused to the State, because the companies that are developing those works have to keep their contractual operational obligation, a cost that all Panamanians will be made to pay.
He stressed that the current Government Administration for political issues decided to stop the works that the Government of Democratic Change (CD) had been carrying out.
"I was in Chiriquí at the end of 2016 and saw the post-harvest centers of Volcán and Dolega kept padlocked, what is regretful because here the Panamanian people are complaining about the high cost of the life, also the producers complain because they do not have where to store their products and the market of this province remains completely forsaken", said De Lima.
The former Minister added that an investment of more than $300 million was made for these infrastructures and both are in total abandonment, and by now they should be providing benefits to the Panamanian people.
Higher cost
As to damage that could occur to these abandoned works, the former Deputy minister of Housing and Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Panamanian Association of Engineers and Architects (SPIA), José Batista, indicated that this may vary depending on the time of abandonment and the material used to build.
The Advisor of the SPIA told Panama America that what is true is that this abandonment of the infrastructure that were being built in the last Government will bring higher costs to the Panamanian State, because when a decision is made to continue them, some tasks will be more expensive, for example, removing the hard cement and rusty irons.