Dozens of engineers and architects who won the right to build public works in the public raffle on December 2015 attended a mass at La Paz Church on Thursday, 29 October 2015, in honor of architect David Rodriguez and to pray that the Ministry of Education release the funds to pay these engineers and architects so these can start many public works for which they have already advanced bonds.
The contractors explained to the media covering the mass that they have paid the bond required and the insurance demanded by the state, that in many cases calls for down payments of more than half a million pesos.
Engineer Guarionex Reyes, president of the Association of Government Contracting Engineers, complained that of 462 professionals who won the 4th round of bids, only 110 had received the advance to start construction of the schools. Reyes complained that the Education Minister Carlos Amarante Baret has refused to receive them.
Baret argues that the funds have not been disbursed because the lots where the schools are to be built have not been selected. However, Reyes says these claims are false and points out that 100 of the contractors already have legal access to the lots where schools are to be built, but these contractors have also yet to receive advances from the Ministry of Education.
Reyes also complained that the Association of Engineers and Architects (Codia) has left many contractors them to fend for themselves.
He said as a last recourse, they decided to pray to God during the mass offered in the memory of architect David Rodriguez Garcia, the contractor who burdened by debts, committed suicide in a bathroom of the Office of Supervisory Engineers of State Works (OISOE).
http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/2015/10/29/i199466_contratistas-invocan-dios-para-que-educacion-pague-nuevas-escuelas.html#.VjJ9C0vxj7I