Engineer Roque Napoleón Muñoz confirmed in an interview with Hoy newspaper that the tender to choose the builders of the Pan American village should have been annulled. He said none of the builders filled the minimum specifications. That is, none of the companies guaranteed the sale of the apartments necessary to pay back the investment in their construction. "Up to where I was with the commission, things went well," he said. He was part of the commission appointed by the Pan American Games organizing committee to oversee the competitive solicitation. Other members also released from their responsibility were Manuel Estrella, TV producer Freddy Beras Goico, Minister of Industry and Commerce Luis Manuel Bonetti, and Minister of Education Ligia Amada Melo. Despite the builders not assuming the responsibility for the sale of the apartment, the Ministry of Public Works is going ahead, choosing Spanish-Dominican consortium, Alpha OHL. The company just has to declare bankruptcy, and Dominican taxpayers will have to pay back the loan the company will be securing in Spain to build the village. Real estate developers doubt that buyers will be found to pay the RD$2.3 million minimum price of the luxury apartments that will go up diagonally across from the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. The Dominican Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Public Works had repeatedly told those that criticized the high cost of the Games on the Dominican economy said that the cost of the village would be assumed by the private sector. The towers are estimated to cost RD$1,100 million. José Joaquin Puello Herrera, president of the Dominican Olympic Committee and the Santo Domingo Pan American Games Organizing Committee washed his hands saying that the Ministry of Public Works is now in charge of the process. He said that Pan Am Games organizers are only interested in receiving the eight towers of 23 floors and 700 apartments 18 days before the start of the Games. Prior to the start of the Fernández administration, today Minister of Public Works Diandino Peña, who has head the village negotiations, was a renowned builder of luxury towers.
