national

Renovation of post office 8 months late

Post office workers, managers, and customers in Chiriquí have been complaing about the delayed renovations, overcrowding, lack of security and poor service for months, to no avail.

LA PRENSA

non-renovations: Industrias Villadea, based in Chitré, is responsible for delays in finishing the remodeling of the post and telegraph office in David. 953445

Remodeling of the post and telegraph office (Cotel) in David has fallen eight months behind schedule, owing in part to the poor quality of renovations originally undertaken there. Inspectors from the office of the Controlaría rejected the work done by Industrias Villadea for apparently good reasons.

Yolanda Pittí, regional director of Cotel, said that the Chitre-based company was hired by the State to complete its renovations in 90 days. That was 11 months ago. "The inspectors [from the Controlaría´s office] objected to the quality of work done to fill cracks and finish the walls and ceiling, which ripples, and so does note meet their expectations. The budget for the project was $137,000. Industrias Villadea has already received $100,000 of the sum due according to their contract. Payment of the rest has been cancelled. "The worst part is that when we asked when the work would be completed, they told us the board of directors had not chosen a date," said Pittí.

Users of the post and telegraph office have been complaining since the remodeling began. Some of the eight thousand users per month---there are 2,000 PO box users in the David district alone--have found their PO boxes left open when they went to retrieve their mail, with no security.

Last March, managers at the office appealed to the patience of post office users in the province, but they never imagined at the time that their patience would be stretched until the end of 2007. Meanwhile, customers continue to suffer the inconveniences of an office that is too small, overcrowded, and hot. There is only one window available for the large number of people who have to retrieve packages from customs. Conditions will likely only worsen with the increase in letters and packages sent around the holidays and at the end of the year.