The  Panama government rejected an  offer   from  a  Chinese company  to  temporarily convert the Amador Convention Center into a modular hospital with more than 1,500 beds and instead preferred to build a $12 million 100-bed hospital (including medical equipment)  with the contract going to companies  with links to  the government and pay for hundreds of  “ hospital hotel beds”

 The gift offer  from theChina Construction America (CCA) came a few days after the first case of coronavirus in Panama was reported, at the beginning of  March. The company would use a technical model provided by its parent company,., with proven experience in building modular hospitals in China.

The contract went to  SmartBrix Central America says a lengthy La Prensa investigation revealing a web of “friends and relatives linked to the bids.

 Sabotage called this and two other companies on March 14 to present their offer. Four days later, President Laurentino Cortizo announced that the hospital would be built. It has not yet been opened for patients.

The  China donation was offered in  March, a few days after the first case of Covid-19 in Panama was announced. It was made by China Construction America (CCA), a subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corp. (CSCEC), the company that built  the new Amador Convention Center.

CSCEC is the same company that a month before had built - in just ten days - two modular 1,000-bed hospitals in Wuhan (China), the epicenter of the pandemic, the cost of which, according to reports from the website ENR (Engineering News-Record ), was $43 million or $43,000 per bed.

The structural adaptation work in the convention center would be donated by CCA to install 1,584 beds in three phases, as required.

"We make our experience, knowledge and human capabilities available to be applied in the temporary transformation of the convention center," highlights the proposal, to which La Prensa had access.

But the government rejected the proposal and instead decided to build its own modular hospital, also in record time: 30 days. The cost per bed in the Panamanian hospital will be a minimum of $120,000, or $ $77,000 (more than each bed in Wuhan modular hospitals reports  La Prensa.

The proposal to modify the convention center would have arrived verbally on March 13 and eleven days later - on March 24 - delivered to the Public Works minister Rafael Sabonge, a 50-page document - - detailing how the convention center.adaptation would be made.

While the technical proposal for the adaptation of the Chinese company was coming, Sabonge was advancing the tender for the modular hospital, and the quotes of the companies that he had invited begun to arrive: VA Project International, TKL Import & Export and SmartBrix Central America.

VA Project, chaired by Jaime Ventura Cervera, director of Mi Bus, has, since March 21, 2019, an operating notice to provide advice, consultancy, and project designs.