I'm stuck.
"Deal offered in Panama Canal expansion dispute" Associated Press, January 08, 2014
PANAMA CITY — The Panama Canal Authority said Tuesday that it wants to end a standoff over the expansion of the canal by splitting construction costs with the international consortium that was threatening to halt work unless the authority came up with $1.6 billion in extra funding.
The authority said Tuesday that it would pay $183 million and Grupo Unidos por el Canal would put in $100 million to continue work for at least two more months while a long-term solution is negotiated.
The Spanish-led consortium would have to withdraw its threat to halt work on the canal by Jan. 20. The consortium, which has said it has run out of cash to fund construction, offered no immediate response to the authority’s offer.
The consortium is formed by Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso, Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium, and Constructora Urbana SA of Panama. It says unexpected problems with the quality of material supposed to be used to make cement spawned massive overruns, and blamed the canal authority for carrying out insufficient geological studies before work began.
Forget the biological pathogens planned for release; the pandemic is already here, and it's called CORRUPTION at ALL LEVELS!
‘‘They haven’t accepted the proposal or rejected it,’’ canal administrator Jorge Luis Quijano said after meeting with consortium representatives. ‘‘At least we’re talking, and on their part there’s a will to follow through with this.’’
Tuesday’s meeting was the first between the authority and the consortium. The authority met Monday with Spain’s public works minister, who said the consortium wanted to work out the dispute within the terms of its contract with the canal administrator.
The claimed cost overrun is roughly half of Grupo Unidos por el Canal’s original $3.2 billion bid to build a third set of locks.
Each side has said the other is responsible for the added costs.
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Meanwhile, ships are doing lazy circles out in the oceans.
"Dispute stops work on Panama Canal project" by Juan Zamorano and Joshua Goodman | Associated Press, February 06, 2014
PANAMA CITY — Work on the ambitious Panama Canal expansion project was halted Wednesday after talks broke down on how to settle a dispute over $1.6 billion in cost overruns.
Panama Canal Authority administrator Jorge Quijano told a news conference the stoppage will give authorities time to analyze how to proceed on the project to widen the canal.
‘‘I don’t even want to suggest that the next steps will be easy or risk-free,’’ a visibly angered Quijano told reporters in Panama. ‘‘What I do want to make clear is that we will not yield to blackmail.’’
The Panama Canal Authority and the Spanish-led construction consortium leading the expansion blame each other for the overruns. They were negotiating how to pay for the unplanned extra costs when talks broke down.
An agreement ‘‘is now no longer possible,’’ Quijano said, adding that the consortium had ordered its employees to stop work.
Other foreign contractors and project managers have expressed an interest in completing the 30 percent of work that remains on the third canal lock, according to canal officials, but Quijano declined to provide details about its plan B except to say that under no circumstances would a 2015 deadline to complete construction be pushed back.
The consortium, which is led by Spain’s Sacyr SA and includes firms from Italy and Belgium, says that 10,000 jobs are immediately at risk. In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, it said Panama’s failure to resolve the impasse threatens to overshadow a summit of 34 hemispheric leaders, including President Obama, that the Central American nation will host next year.
‘‘Instead of celebrating Panama’s vital role in global commerce, leaders will be regretting that the ACP and Panama have abandoned negotiations,’’ the statement said, referring to the canal authority by its Spanish initials.
In Europe, the EU’s Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani said news of the work stoppage was ‘‘unexpected’’ after Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli had made a statement on Tuesday indicating that the parties were close to an agreement.
Martinelli called on Panamanians to close ranks behind the canal authority, whose autonomy is guaranteed by the constitution, accusing the consortium of acting irresponsibly.
The project, which is already running nine months behind schedule, would double the capacity of the 50-mile canal, which carries 5 to 6 percent of world commerce.
The consortium blames the extra costs largely on problems with studies that the Panamanian authority conducted before work began.
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Related: The Point to Silly Panama Story
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