News
Tuesday 28th March 2023.
March 28, 2023
Starting at 12:01 am this Monday, the Urban and Home Cleaning Authority (AAUD) took control of the Cerro Patacón sanitary landfill, in the township of Ancón.
This, after the concession contract maintained by the Urbalia Panama company since 2008 was in force until 11:59 pm on Sunday, March 26.
“After 15 long years, the landfill returned to the AAUD,” said Alonso Filós, designated director of the AAUD.
Filós said they expect to be operating the landfill “for three months or less.” He indicated that the operation is expected to be transferred to a company that will oversee this operation for two years or less. He did not mention the name of the company since that issue still needs to be “concretized”.
The designated director of the AAUD also explained that later it is expected to establish a plant or “material recovery system” so that the waste is not continued to be operated as it has been done up to now.
“We require many changes,” said Filós, who announced that some cleaning work would begin this Monday. “Unfortunately we have many unpleasant points, we must improve the conditions of the place,” he said.
He also said that teams are being hired who will be able to assume the tasks they are in charge of now. “We are hiring equipment, which we don’t have… we have the human staff”, he pointed out.
Urbalia representatives had to deliver, this morning, the access keys to the offices to the AAUD, which, as stated, will control Cerro Patacón.
It should be remembered that this company has indicated that there is an addendum that extends the contract for another nine months and that the State owes it, since March 2020, some $26 million for services provided in the landfill operation.
“We have not been able to enter to work, we have had to hand over the administrative office,” said Harold Barco, legal representative of Urbalia Panama.
Barco warned that what is left now is “a legal job” since “our contract is being violated.”
The Social Security Fund (CSS) carries out the tender for ” the hemodialysis service and supply of hemodialysis kits, as well as the design, construction and qualification of hemodialysis units, according to technical specifications ” for a reference price of $180.8 million, however, it only has one bidder.
This is stated in the Panama Compra portal, where it is detailed that the only company that submitted a proposal was the Renal Consortium —made up of DaVita, SINTEC and Constructora Nova—, which offered $168.8 million on March 22, for which now a technical commission must evaluate it.
When the previous meeting and approval was held last January, 12 companies showed interest in the project, and they made a series of observations and consultations about the process.
The tender contemplates providing service to the 18 existing hemodialysis units, added to the six new units, which would total 270 hemodialysis machines, which will have the capacity to serve at least 3,000 patients per month, 800 more compared to the 2,200 that are currently receiving care, the CSS said.
The six new hemodialysis units will be built at the Irma De Lourdes Tzanetatos Hospital (eastern Panama); in the future Edilberto Culiolis polyclinic (North Panama); next to the Caipar Hemodialysis Center and the Hugo Spadafora polyclinic (Colón province); land on the Pan-American highway (Coclé province); land of the Santiago Barraza polyclinic (Panama West) and land in the process of being donated located on the road to the Enrique Malek airport (Chiriquí province).
Ana Patricia Cuestas, national director of CSS Purchasing, reported that only one company bid and now a technical evaluation commission will review in detail whether it complies with the specifications and regulations to award or declare the tender void.
The Tocumen International Airport began the construction of the pedestrian connection, in the outer section located between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Until now, passengers and workers must travel through an uncovered area, so they are likely to be affected by inclement weather.
Currently, a transport service is offered with 2 buses that leave very frequently from Terminal 1, making its first stop at the airport station and then at Terminal 2, round trip all day and part of the night, to transfer both to workers as well as travelers.
The authorities of the air terminal informed that the construction of the pedestrian connection will offer safe, friendly and comfortable access facilities to users who move between Terminal 1 and 2, sheltering them from rain and sun.
The work of the pedestrian walkway is being carried out by the company Jera SA, and the cost of the contract amounts to $715,061.42 dollars.
“The project contemplates the adaptation of pedestrian sidewalks, roofing, lighting, as well as a section of roof in stretched canvas and other sections of polycarbonate. On March 15, the Panama Metro put into operation the branch that connects this transportation system with the Tocumen International Airport,” Tocumen SA said in a statement.
Six Panamanian doctors, four graduated from the University of Panama (UP) and two from the Universidad Latina, were selected by the National Resident Matching Program, known as Match, to carry out their residency in the United States.
The four doctors graduated from UP are Jorge Sinclair, who will do his internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York City; and Margarita Ríos will complete her residency in Pediatrics at the Jacobi Medical Center, also in New York City.
In addition, Chantal Candanedo was selected for the emergency medicine residency program at Kendall Hospital, in the city of Miami; and Harold Bravo will complete his internal medicine residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
While the Latin University physicians selected for the Match 2023 program are Sharan Malkani and Daniela Montenegro for internal medicine and family medicine, respectively, at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
Xavier Sáez-Llorens, head of the Research Department of the Dr. José Renán Esquivel Children’s Hospital, highlighted the quality of the Panamanian Medicine graduate.
In fact, recently the doctor Harold Bravo was sworn in the Renewing health education program (REDES-2023) carried out by the Cevaxin Research Center and the UP where a group of students presented the results of its first edition, 10 protocols of research that address priority issues for public health in Panama and the region.
Match 2023 had the most certified seats in history at 40,375, an increase of 1,170 seats and 3 percentage points more than 2022 and an increase of 14.8% over the past five years. In other words, the program broke a record in applicants.
Specialties with 30 or more positions that filled all available positions in the 2023 Residency Match were Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery (Integrated), Radiology – Diagnostic, and Thoracic Surgery.
In emergency medicine, 3,010 aspired in the 2023 Match and had 554 vacant positions, indicates a statement from the National Resident Matching Program.
In recent days, bank customers have been complaining that they have received notifications from their banks in the mobile application, so that they justify their income and deposits, and present the supports that prove the origin of their money.
If this is your case, you should know that according to the Superintendence of Banks of Panama (SBP), financial entities that operate in the country are obliged to carry out due diligence to know their clients and report when there are people with unusual movements in their accounts to prevent financial crimes.
Although it is not a new resolution, but dates back to 2015, it is this year that many banks began updating data on mobile platforms, when before they did so with calls, emails or when users went to branches.
Also now the use of bank transfers through the applications has been deepened, when this did not happen before.
The reason for this review and request for justification of deposits according to the SBP is to prevent financial services from being used improperly, for the crime of money laundering, financing of terrorism and other crimes as established in article 112 of the Banking Law .
Banks classify clients according to risk: low, medium and high. High-risk customer data must be updated every 12 months, medium-risk customers every 24 months, and low-risk customers every 48 months.