The City of Health, a flagship project of the Martinelli administration will end up costing over a billion dollars, more than double the original projection, after 11 years of delays, corruption probes, and court challenges.

Is estimated to be ready in 24 months. The contract was awarded in 2012, for $554.3 million.

The revelation came from the director of the Social Security Fund (CSS), Enrique Enrique Lau

on Tuesday, October 19, at the headquarters of the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, in a conference in which he offered financial details of the project that was originally in charge of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), currently investigated by the payment of bribes in Panama.

After years of delays, changes in the design and scope of the work, in addition to the contractor's claim for more money, FCC ended up leaving the work and withdrew an arbitration proceeding against Panama for differences over the contract.

In July of this year, the Cabinet Council authorized the CSS to sign with the Construcciones Hospitalarias consortium and the insurer Mapfre Panamá, SA “a transactional agreement” to complete the construction of the project.

Lau specified that the new agreement was sent to the Comptroller General to receive in August. There is a period of 90 days to perfect the details of the agreement, a period that expires in November. The projection is that the work will be delivered in 2023, eleven years after Martinelli

"The civil works at the moment looks like a scary movie," Lau said, referring to the state of the facilities built by FCC.

According to the financial program for the work, of the $ 554.2 million agreed in the contract with FCC, $ 338.7 million have been paid; there is a budget available of $ 215.5 million and additional funds of $ 445.5 million are needed, for a total of $ 999.8 million.

Later, during the presentation, Lau explained that in reality, the additional funds that are needed will amount to $486.6 million when the cost of financing is included, "so as not to hit the reserves of the Fund." That is to say, that the work, instead of ending up costing $999.8 million, as it had initially warned, will have a total cost of $1,040.8 million.

In addition to the cost of financing, the CSS has budgeted in the additional item for the City of Health, funds for medical and technological equipment and civil works.