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Costa Ricans Would Ratify CAFTA
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Costa Rican Sugar to be Sold in Canadian
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Mud racing, This company Loves Misery
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A Defiant Meco to Appeal Airport Contract
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"Card/Palm Reading" Is A Scam,
Police Say
A Defiant Meco to Appeal Airport Contract
By Ralph Nicholson, the beachtimes.com
Plans to expand Liberia's Daniel Oduber Airport were dealt a major
setback late this week with the announcement the Bagaces-based heavy
construction firm, Meco S.A., would appeal a decision on a contract for
additional airplane parking.
Meco"s decision to appeal comes just two days after Costa Rica's Board
of Civil Aviation awarded a contract worth $2.285 million dollars to
Meco"s chief rival in the heavy construction business, Pedregal S.A. of
San José.
Meco's bid to build what amounts to a third, 16,000-square meter, apron
for three or four commercial passenger jets, plus an additional access
road from the runway was $1.828 million dollars, or more than $456,000
cheaper than that of Pedregal.
"We can't understand how this decision was adjudicated," Alejandro
Bolaños, who managed the bid for Meco, said after the decision was
announced. "We made an unbeatable offer in terms of price and time to
completion.
"It was decided today (Wednesday) we will present an appeal," he said.
Meco's bid said they would complete the work in 40 days, whereas
Pedregal is understood to have offered completion in 70 days.
"There is no valid reason for us to be taken out of the bidding
contest," Mr Bolaños said. "We have a strong curricula, not just in
Costa Rica but in Central America.
"We have a proven experience for works of this magnitude, and we now
want to go to a third party to see whether we are right or not," he
said.
The Consejo Técnico de Aviación Civil, or Board of Civil Aviation, has
not commented on the adjudication process, but is understood to have
considered Meco"s completion time to be ambitious.
"All we were told was that the time to do the work was inadmissible, but
then they never indicated what an admissible time frame was," Mr Bolaños
said.
Meco has been in heavy construction, including earth moving, concreting,
and paving, for 26 years. It has won contracts with Ecodesarrollo
Papagayo and the Four Seasons project, Los Sueños Marina and the
Marriott Hotel in Playa Herradura and the Sandilla Hydro-electric
project.
Most recently it won a contract with the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism
to repair the roads between Belén and Villareal, Huacas, Matapalo and
Flamingo.
"The apron and taxiway are clearly a priority for the airport and the
problem now is this may well mean a very long fight," said Roberto
Kopper, a former director with the Board of Civil Aviation.
Part of the problem is that the process for awarding public contracts in
Costa Rica is notoriously slow. Heavy construction companies compete
aggressively for scarce contracts, and many are struggling.
"The airport has serious issues of infrastructure because of the law of
public contracting," said Anilibe Rosales, Airport Manager for Daniel
Oduber Airport.
"The project to build the new apron and taxi-way is behind schedule, for
it was to be finished this season," Ms Rosales said. "At the moment it
is in an adjudication process and taking into account there may be an
appeal, we are predicting the order to start work may be given by
October.
"We will then have 67 days to start construction, so the apron is
unlikely to be finished before the middle of December."
"We would have liked to have seen the contract go to the local company,"
said Hubert Gysemans, President of the Guanacaste Chamber of tourism.
"The difference is not just on price but is one of timing, and that is
important to us."
"The thing is that we have critical periods of operation," said Ms
Rosales. "If we could accommodate the flights as we wish we wouldn't
have problems, but in very short periods we have a big number of
flights, which outstrip the airport's capacity."
Daniel Oduber Airport has seen up to 42 flights a week this month,
however, on Saturdays there are seven flights, six of them all within
three hours, all vying for parking, baggage handling, customs and
immigration facilities.
A record 32,600 international passengers came through Liberia's Daniel
Oduber Airport last month, more than twice the number who used the
airport in January 2004.
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