interior

Comarca road project derailed

Eduardo Espinosa/LA PRENSA

bumpy ride:Residents of the Comarca Ngöbe Buglé complain that road conditions are worse now than before repairs began.1085249

A project to repair roads in the Comarca Ngöbe Buglé seems to have backfired, as residents trying out the freshly treated streets early Saturday morning encountered a rougher ride than before.

Gertrudis Sire, a veteran defender of indigenous rights who was en route to the community of Buenos Aires last weekend, said it was a white-knuckle ride all the way. She said she couldn’t believe that this was the same road she had taken just days earlier.

The road works are part of the Proyecto Ngöbe Buglé (PNG), a program meant to modernize infrastructure within the largely independent indigenous region stretching between the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí and Veraguas. But funding for the project has mysteriously dried up, leaving the community caught in the middle of a mounting imbroglio between project administrators and the company contracted to do the work.

As Nicasio Miranda Cortéz, the director of the missionary center Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús, sees it, the conditions of the district’s roads is one of the principal obstacles to expanding the Comarca’s economy. Cortéz has watched the project founder with a growing level of frustration.

“Where are the inspectors and auditors for this work?” he wondered. “There’s no supervision of the project and as we don’t know engineering, they can cheat us, and the quality of the work is obviously not the best.”

What bothers Cortéz most, he added, was that “state funds are running out without anyone knowing where they’re going.”

PNG director director Bernardo Jaen said his office is in the process of getting a performance bond to prevent the contractor from backing out of the project.

Ariel Montezuma, a spokesman for PNG, mentioned that they have sought reimbursement by their insurance company for the company’s breach of contract.

Despite the financial problems, the first phase of repairs on the road between Alto Viguí and Barrigón should be finished in October 2008, said PNG officials.