Bulldozers began breaking ground last week on the construction of a new building to house the Supreme Court and Attorney-General’s Office and already dust is being kicked up. The Public Works Ministry started work on the building, to be constructed on the former site of the Agriculture Ministry in Centro de los Heroes, without soliciting bids. Ministry engineers told El Siglo that the building would include a detention center (jail) in its basement, a design detail that proved to be news to both Supreme Court head Jorge Subero Isa and Attorney-General Mariano Germ?n Mej?a. Consulted Monday by El Siglo, Subero Isa said that Ministry engineers had asked him for a few design comments nearly a year ago, but had not consulted him since and he had not been aware work had started on the complex. Germ?n Mej?a yesterday told El Siglo that he likewise had not been kept informed of building plans, and that he would oppose any plan to include a jail on the premises. Pressed by the newspaper, Ministry officials have admitted that bidding had not been solicited for the project. They claim, however, that the Ministry is free to do all excavation and preparatory work on its own authority, and then solicit bids for the actual building work.
