The designated Minister of Public Works, José Luis Andrade, assured that he will emphasize the repair of the country’s roads, mainly the tourist areas and the construction of the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, after meeting with the current Minister Rafael Sabonge, at the beginning of the entity’s transition.

Andrade indicated that as they had already had a previous meeting, today they received a lot of information that they had requested, and there they have a work schedule with the different heads of departments who are going to cooperate with him, for the next few days to continue with the transition, describing the meeting as very good.

“The topics that interest me the most are all, such as the APP, Cuarto Puente del Canal, maintenance, new projects, everything in general,” Andrade stressed.

In the same way, he indicated that they have a list of projects that especially want to promote several tourist road projects at the national level, and mentioned as an example the Coffee Route in Chiriquí, as well as the El Valle de Antón road that is a little deteriorated.

For his part, Sabonge said that what they have wanted is for the transition to be as transparent and cordial as possible, so they have technological tools that allow them to see the information in real time of the projects that are being executed, so practically what they have done is address the different projects that are being executed and the budgetary needs that the Ministry of Public Works has.

“Trying to make a transition as orderly as possible, as the appointed minister said, we already have a work schedule that goes from June 10 to June 21, where the different directors, heads, department directors, will be meeting with their assigned counterpart, so that the information can flow in the most effective and efficient way possible,” Sabonge said.

He added that several projects have a budget item, but, in some of the cases with insufficient resources, which are the issue of the accounts payable that are being left, they are not projects or contracts that do not have a budget, and they are projects that have been executed in a good way, by the contractors of the ministry.

“Approximately it is about US$320 million in contracts that do not have sufficient resources, but we are sure that it is an issue that will be addressed, since we have discussed it with the appointed minister and we have heard it from the incoming authorities,” Sabonge explained.