By Yamalie Rosario
El Inmobiliario
This Monday, at 10 am, the Ministry of Housing and Buildings (MIVHED) will begin the opening ceremony for the technical proposals or Phase A corresponding to the tender to contract the services for the completion of Phase I of the Las Parras Correction and Rehabilitation Center, located in Guerra, Santo Domingo.
The process will take place in the Auditorium of Building I of the MIVHED, located on Moisés García Street, corner of Dr. Báez Street, Gazcue. The opening ceremony will also be streamed online.
The tender, which has the reference: MIVHED-CCC-LPN-2023-0010, is in its closed stage and the authorities estimate a total investment amounting to RD$419,744,314.00.
The procedure for opening envelopes must be carried out in a public act in the presence of the Purchasing and Contracting Committee and the acting Notary Public.
According to the bidding schedule, established in the terms and conditions, the call for this competition was made on August 7th of this year.
Meanwhile, the opening ceremony and reading of the economic proposals or Envelope B is scheduled for October 16, 2023, at 10 am.
The awarding of the contract is scheduled for Wednesday, October 25th of this year, 2023.
The authorities established that the maximum execution time for the work is 12 months.
According to the requirements set forth, the economic offer proposed by the bidder/proposer cannot exceed by more than 10 percent the estimated value for each lot to be contracted nor be less than that percentage with respect to its estimated value.
The hustle and bustle of the work
On August 11, 2020, the previous government, through the Attorney General's Office, inaugurated the La Nueva Victoria Correctional Center, which was designed with a capacity for 8,778 inmates, with 112 observation cells, 80 reflection cells, 48 maximum security cells, 88 cells specially designed for inmates with reduced mobility, and 96 conjugal visit cells. It also has four dining hall and kitchen buildings, 30 administrative buildings, and 57 living quarters, as well as spaces for eight churches, a gymnasium, two softball stadiums, 23 basketball courts, two boxing rings, 11 commissaries, and 11 barbershops.
The investment made by the State was RD$6,967 million pesos and sought to be the solution to the overcrowding problems that La Victoria prison exhibited for decades.
The project stalled following the legal accusation made by the Public Prosecutor's Office against Jean Alain Rodríguez, former Attorney General of the Republic.
According to the General Directorate of Prosecution of the Public Ministry and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (PEPCA), Jean Alain was allegedly part of an administrative corruption network that was dismantled by Operation Medusa, which involves other implicated parties.
The Attorney General's Office (PGR) determined that the project was not ready for operation and therefore halted construction. Furthermore, that office, represented by Magistrate Miriam Germán Brito, transferred the project to the Executive Branch.
Subsequently, starting in 2021, the government entrusted MIVHED with the completion of Phase I of the Las Parras Correction and Rehabilitation Center, one of the main projects of the Penitentiary System Humanization Plan implemented by the Attorney General's Office under Jean Alain Rodríguez.
Cover photo: Listín Diario.
