Some new rich people in the heat of the real estate bubble have generated a loss of 5,3 million euros in Lopesan. From El Hierro, an island in which its entire population fits in a couple of hotels in Meloneras, it emerged when the construction boom of a beach bar called Fronpeca. That Fronpeca, through the art of birlibirloque, managed to connect to Lopesan and ended up creating a joint venture to carry out works in Colombia. The unpresentable people from El Hierro ended up contaminating Lopesan's reputation in no less than a maternal and child hospital. The great unresolved equation is: who brought these people from Fronpeca, already in bankruptcy proceedings, to Lopesan, which is being defended in Colombia with a public defender? The photo in this news is of the agreement between both companies in 2011.
Thus, after more than a decade in the Colombian courts and with the Herreña company bankrupt, Lopesan will have to pay the Colombian State 5,3 million euros in penalties for leaving the Neiva University Hospital unfinished. To top it all off, a detail of the ethical concept of businesses linked to childhood and Corporate Social Responsibility: the UTE Lopesan Fronpeca also sued the Neiva University Hospital with an ex-officio lawyer. When in 2011 they launched that alliance between Lopesan and Fronpeca, the press officer on duty published a press release saying: "the new company was born with a potential business portfolio for 2011 of 50 million dollars. This information alone makes it the largest Canarian commitment to internationalization of the construction sector in Latin America," according to the joint statement made public yesterday by both island entities."
Nothing at all
The UTE Lopesan Asfaltos y Construcciones Sucursal Colombia and Herreña Fronpeca Sucursal Colombia will have to pay the Neiva University Hospital the economic damages that, in the form of consequential damages and lost profits, have been caused by the non-compliance with the work contract 242 of 2011 awarded during the administration of Governor Luis Jorge P. Sánchez. The abstract sentence was decreed by the Administrative Court of Huila, upon ruling on the first of the three lawsuits left by the construction of the monumental white elephant. Judges Enrique Dussán Cabrera, Ramiro Aponte Pino and Jorge Alirio Cortés Soto declared breach of contract by the Spanish consortium.
The work, designed to reduce the alarming rates of perinatal mortality, was to be carried out in one year. However, it remained with an advance of 41%. Ten years later it is still unfinished. The UTE was a fiasco because they did not have money to accelerate the works. Although the Spanish consortium had certified that it had extraordinary financial capacity to carry out the work with its own resources, the reality was different. The project was being leveraged solely with the resources coming from the advances that the hospital disbursed to it. The contractor, as proven, did not have the financial muscle or solvency to carry out a work of that magnitude, as he claimed in his proposal.
The work began in November 2011 amid serious difficulties. The delays were mainly caused by financial issues. Also due to design inconveniences, delays due to winter, lack of supplies and normal technical aspects. "To the lack of personnel, technical inconsistencies in the soil study, lack of coordination and planning, and the winter season were added," explained architect Álvaro Dávila, who was in charge of the project. The poor quality of the concrete applied in the foundation of the project due to low resistance affected compliance with the initial schedule and therefore the progress of the works. Given the physical impossibility of completing the work, in December 2012 the contractor requested a new extension. But this time, as was obvious, he could not comply either and the work was left in mid-stream. Given the repeated non-compliance, the manager of the Hospital, Jesús Antonio Castro Vargas, declared the expiration on January 25, 2013, making effective the sole guarantee issued by the State Insurance Company for a value of 21.968 million pesos. The lawsuit was admitted on September 15, 2015 and seven years later it was just ruled, declaring breach of contract.