Carlos Neuhaus, president of Lima 2019, said this morning that the Pan American and Parapan American Games will cost the country PEN 4.2 billion and that the organization will not require an increase of economic resources. This amount is less than the initial budget approved in the Master Plan.
“When I joined the project, the approved Master Plan was PEN 4.3 billion, without General Sales Tax. Then, it was the same amount with General Sales Tax; that is, 774 million less. Besides, there was a little reduction of about PEN 100 million. It will amount to PEN 4.2 billion approximately with General Sales Tax,” he said to a local radio.
Concerning the construction works executed at VIDENA, he explained that according to the international requirements, 20,000 m2 more of iron and cement were used in the construction. This fact was informed to the Comptroller General of the Republic.
“VIDENA is the most complex infrastructure project carried out by the Special Project for the Pan American and Parapan American Games. When I started to work in this project, it had a delay and we didn’t have pre-investment studies, so experts from the UK found a contract model suitable for the type of information we had. That’s the NEC contract, option F, which is exactly because of the poor level of detail we have,” explained the Lima 2019 Executive Secretary.
He added that the nature of that contract is collaborative because a supervision must be carried out by the contractor and client/entity. This helped Lima 2019 to “continue working on the construction without interruptions.” “These aren’t luxurious construction works. Each cent is being supervised by our entity representative, experts from the UK and external consultants. All the information is shared with the Comptroller General of the Republic.”
He stressed that costs were optimized and reduced by the Lima 2019 Organizing Committee with the support of the United Kingdom. Therefore, infrasctructure projects will be completed with the assigned budget and additional economic resources will not be necessary.
Also, Neuhaus assured that there will be no “white elephants” at the end of the Games since the Armed Forces and other institutions are interested in buying the apartments of the Pan American and Parapan American Village.
In addition, he stated that, when he started to manage the Project in September 26, 2016, the Master Plan indicated that the Pan American Village would have 39 towers from 8 to 10 floors with a cost of PEN 750 million. This was then changed and reduced to 7 towers (4 of 20 floors and 3 of 19 floors) at a cost of approximately PEN 266 million.
Finally, he informed that over 40 bidders from all over the world participated in each tendering process through an independent licensing method that evaluates different aspects: technical issues and quality comprise 70% of the criteria and the other 30% represents the economic proposal. “Unsuccessful bidders may also appeal. The advantage of this method is that we can continue working without interruptions,” he concluded.