Saturday, 10 September 2022
Delays, three changes of government and bureaucracy have massively increased the cost of completing the construction of the new hospital in Kyrenia, Yeniduzen reports.
The last company to have successfully bid to complete the building was Gerçek İnşaat. However, the tender was cancelled due to the further devaluation of the Turkish Lira. The company’s bid was under 556,000 TL.
Construction of the new hospital has been plagued with problems. Changing governments under the leadership of the National Unity Party (UBP) were unable to complete the tender process for the partly constructed hospital, which was taken over in return for “insurance debts” in 2020.
Constructing the hospital was originally priced at 62 million Turkish Lira, however, with delays and inflation it will now cost 220 million Turkish Lira, Erhan Arıklı, the Minister of Public Works and Transport has said.
He said that the rules of tender should be updated because they are complicated and delays in finishing construction have added to the problem.
Arıklı said, “The bureaucracy is very cumbersome, unfortunately we cannot overcome some things. No serious progress has been made, the MIK law needs to be changed, but no one lifts a finger” .
Cafer Gürcafer, President of the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association (KTİMB), stated that “Bureaucracy will creep on at a turtle’s pace, by September 27, the deadline, it will not catch up“.
With the ‘price difference application’ to be added to the specifications of the tender, it is aimed to protect both the project and the company that wins the tender, despite the fluctuation in foreign currency.
Chairman of the Central Tender Commission (MIK) Halis Üresin, stated that nine construction companies had bid to complete the hospital building so far and that the deadline is 27 September.