For months the Dominican Olympic directors and the Ministry of Public Works have told Dominicans that the Santo Domingo Pan Am Games’ village would not cost Dominican taxpayers a penny. The village would be a private real estate development. This was taken as fact. Nevertheless, several developments have spurred more questions than answers in recent weeks. The press and curious citizens are now asking if the government was not telling all the truth in regards to the construction of the Pan American Olympic Village. Will it be a case similar to the "no bill increases for 4 years" of the privatization of the CDE? The government for months told Dominicans that electricity bills would be frozen for four years. After privatization, Dominicans learned differently, with most city residents experiencing significant hikes in their billing. Hoy newspaper page two writer (Coctelera) is asking the same questions. Why has the Dominican government started the estimated RD$30 million cost of the ground excavations necessary to build the towers and their parking area if this was supposedly in the contract as responsibility of the private developers? Who won the contest and what kind of a tender was it after all? The government pre-qualified the participants of the contest, narrowing these down to three. The best bid would build five, the runner up three, and the third of the three would build one. This indeed was a strange competitive solicitation, but engineer Roque Napoleón Muñoz’s prestige lead to no doubts about its legitimacy. First, the actual date of the bid had to be postponed when two of the companies had trouble getting financing. First the government announced the order of the winners. Then the government announced that only one of the three companies was able to secure financing. Meanwhile, the government has been doing the ground excavations. Coctelera writes that its sources indicate that well reputed engineer Roque Napoleón Muñoz wanted to declare the contest annulled because eventually none of the builders had secured the financing to build the towers to specifications. But apparently, his role with the Olympic Village has been terminated by more influential sectors, speculates Hoy newspaper. Coctelera points out that the specifications for the 700 apartments are to build deluxe dwellings, complete with gypsum ceiling borders, mahogany doors, and first class ceramic floors. The estimated cost per apartment is RD$2.3 million. Coctelera explains that real estate developers say it is difficult that the return will be recuperated because of the area where it is located, on the Av. John F. Kennedy overlooking small mechanic shops, slums and an industrial area of the city on the north side, plus an inordinate high density. Coctelera also asks why the project needs congressional endorsement. Coctelera speculates that what is behind the deal is that the company that "won" the bid, a Spanish-Dominican consortium, needs the Dominican government to serve as guarantor for the loans they will be getting from a pool of banks head by the Bilbao Vizcaya of Spain. If the developers were to go bankrupt, Dominican taxpayers would have to pay the loans in the predetermined five year period. Coctelera criticizes the lack of transparency of the contest. The Dominican Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Public Works had sold the idea that the only cost for the Dominican state would be the lot on which the apartments would go up. The government obtained the lot in a swap for shares with the Sociedad Industrial Dominicana.
