Since last March 15, the Public Ministry (MP) published the International Public Tender in Guatecompras for the expansion of the institution’s headquarters, located in the Gerona neighborhood, zone 1 of Guatemala City.
The closing of offers is this March 22. The start of the project, according to the National Public Investment System (SNIP), was on January 3, 2022. The completion will be on March 31, 2025. The expansion is planned to be 31 thousand square meters at a cost of Q320 million.
According to official information, the MP headquarters expansion project will structurally consist of 12 levels. Two basements for 386 4-wheeled vehicles and 120 two-wheeled vehicles. In addition, nine levels of offices and one of the machine room which will serve as MP offices.
The objective of the construction is to “strengthen institutional capacity and effectively carry out criminal investigation and prosecution functions and increase the resolution of cases and the comprehensive effectiveness of the institution.
On March 19, the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, publicly presented “the bidding rules for the construction of Tower III at the headquarters” before representatives of the chambers of Industry, Commerce and Construction.
Representatives of the Public Finance and Currency Commission of the Congress of the Republic also participated in this event.
A day before, according to the MP, he met with authorities from the Public Credit Directorate of the Ministry of Public Finance and Comptroller General of Accounts.
In both meetings they presented the construction project for Tower III, which they will carry out “with the support of the IDB”, and, according to the institution, “it is part of the actions proposed in the Institutional Strategic Plan of the Public Ministry 2022-2026 ”.
According to official information, this work includes “Axis 3, the strengthening of criminal prosecution in order to increase the response capacity of the tax area, through the expansion of the coverage of specialized agencies.”
“With this expansion project, the installed capacity in the building will increase, which will house prioritized units,” the official statement quotes.
Tower III will consist of 8 levels and will house more than a thousand jobs in specialized prosecutor’s offices and three basements for parking cars and motorcycles.
According to the MP “it will be a sustainable building producing 24% savings in energy, 57% in water and 26% in construction materials.”
Project since 2016
It was prosecutor Thelma Aldana when the IDB approved the loan BID-3849-OC-GU, as part of the program to strengthen and modernize the Public Ministry.
The objective was to “increase the effectiveness of the Public Ministry to contribute to the reduction of impunity in Guatemala.”
Additionally, increase efficiency in the processing of complaints and cases; increase the quality of impeachment requests submitted to judges; and reduce internal response times and for citizen service.
On December 7, 2016, the IDB approved the delivery of a loan of 60 million dollars, equivalent to approximately Q451 million 200 thousand, to improve the effectiveness of the MP in the fight against corruption and impunity.
The loan began its journey in Congress, for approval, on January 6, 2017. It was presented to the plenary session on January 19 and received a favorable opinion on April 24 of that same year.
The first debate was on February 23, 2019; the second on August 28, 2019 and the third on April 3, 2020. It was between the legislatures in which Jimmy Morales and Alejandro Giammattei governed that the decree was approved.
That April 3, decree 14-2020 was signed with 133 votes in favor. Eleven days later, former President Giammattei sanctioned him.
They published it on April 16 in the Diario de Centroamérica and a day later it became effective.
For now, the loan funds, according to a summary obtained on the official website of the Ministry of Finance (Minfin), the signing of the loan contract was on April 23, 2020. Its closing is projected for April 23, 2025. The status of the loan is 78.19 percent in execution.
Of the US$60 million (about Q469 million 60 thousand 800), the IDB has disbursed US$12 million 500 thousand (about Q97 million 721 thousand. US$47 million 500 (about Q371 million 339 thousand 800) remains to be disbursed, which represents 20.83%.
The interest rate that Guatemala pays for this loan is 6.42% and so far US$801 thousand 340.95 (about Q6 million 267 thousand 703.16) have been paid.
The expansion of the MP’s headquarters in zone 1, Gerona, was one of the three alternatives that the institution proposed to invest the funds.
This option consists of building tower III in an area adjacent to the two existing ones. The MP recognized the availability of a 41.50 x 86.10 property, “space that can be optimized for the construction of a tower with an approximate construction area of 24,510 m2.
Currently, that property is used as parking, which would be moved to the basements that could be included in the new building.
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