It's been over 19 months since the government signed a loan agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development to finance a hospital in Belmopan. It will be the second tertiary care facility in the country and will also serve as a teaching hospital. And with UB's new medical school, it seemed ideal that the hospital would be built on their campus. The location was later changed, which led to controversy, but the government didn't change their minds.
And today they held a closed contract signing with a Saudi firm that applied to offer their consultancy services. Courtney Menzies has this story.
Belmopan's promised tertiary care teaching hospital has endured weeks of controversy and scrutiny after the government shifted its proposed location from the UB Campus to 15 acres near the highway.
And though headlines have faded, government today quietly signed a contract with Dar Al Omran International Engineering Consulting Company for 1.6 million US dollars. DAO will be expected to provide complete design and construction supervision services as the hospital - which will have a capacity of 150 beds - is constructed.
At the signing, both parties expressed their eagerness for the construction of the hospital.
Yacoub Shubeilat, Managing Director, DAO
"We are glad that we're the present Saudi firm to lead the design and the supervision for the Belmopan hospital and we look forward for a fruitful coordination and work relationship with all the stakeholders here in Belmopan so that we can deliver this hospital as per the client's expectations and hopefully we can meet again and we open this hospital within the forecasted period for the design and construction."
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"As you know Belize's only tertiary facility that exists is at the Karl Heusner and this will add to the services that we now offer and bring benefits in providing quality access to healthcare and so on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the wider government I want to thank you all and look forward to the work and the commencement of this very important project."
The contract is 55 months long. The development and approval of the design will occur within 9 months, the period of construction is 34 months, and the defects liabilities period is for another 12 months.
DAO was ranked at the top of the 5 Saudi firms that applied for the position and is a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering consultancy firm with over 43 years of experience. They have developed projects in more than 20 countries.
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