Panama halts wastewater treatment tender

Panama's health ministry (Minsa) has canceled the tender process for the project to construct a second wastewater treatment module at the Juan Diaz plant in capital Panama City.

The decision to annul the tender was based on technical specifications put forward by the bidders which had not been considered in the project's original designs.

These specifications could greatly influence the project's success and as such they will be incorporated into the tender rules and a new process will be launched, Minsa said in the decision.

Four bidders had been seeking to win the contract, which calls for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the new module.

The project had been set a reference budget of US$343mn, and that amount considered a capex budget of US$147mn and an opex budget of US$173mn, with the balance being tax, according to documents on Panama's public procurement website.

The companies who had successfully presented bids in the tender offering included Spain's Acciona and France's Suez Environnement, as well as a three-group consortium comprised by France's OTV, Brazil's Queiroz Galvão, and Costa Rica's Meco.

The project is being financed by the IDB and is being implemented under a larger initiative to clean up and rehabilitate the Panama City bay and area rivers.

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