The
image of Brand Spain has deteriorated over the last years.
Corruption issues with an impact on the political class first, and then others
linked directly to the Spanish Royal Family hasn't been very good publicity.
But there is a question that is impossible to ignore regarding Spain:
everything related to infrastructure in Spain —construction, costs— is always
set in an almost insane context, to say the least. Let's see some examples:
1.
Sacyr
and the Panama Canal: the Spanish construction company presented an
extremely low bid —some sources talk of a recklessly low bid— of €2.3bn to win
the tender. They won it and they did what they normally do in Spain: once they
are awarded the project, midway through the construction of the infrastructure
they claim an alleged unexpected cost increase to be covered by the
administration. In this case, the claim by Sacyr from the Panamanian Government
is to the tune of €1.2bn, and the Panamanian Government seems reluctant to
accept. The threat to stop work on the new Panama Canal, an infrastructure of
global significance, is obviously not something to be proud of for the Spanish
company, and by extension harms Spain's imatge.
2.
The
Madrid M-30 Ring Road or Beltway: very similar to the Sacyr issue in
Panama, but at a considerably magnified scale. In this case, the companies
involved are Ferrovial and ACS —also Madrid-based construction companies, and
very familiar with the influence peddling in the VIP lounge of Madrid Soccer
Club's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. If for the Panama Canal (77 km) the contract
was for €2.3bn, and now Sacyr claims an extra cost of €1.2bn —totalling €3.5bn—
the M-30 is unparalleled: the deal was closed for €2.5bn, but the total cost
reached €7bn. Surprised? There's more to come. The Panama Canal is 77 km long.
The Madrid ring is less than a half that, 32 km. Thus the cost is three times
that of the canal. Awesome.
3.
The
Pajares Rail Tunnel: the High Speed Train frenzy for all Spanish
governments (both left or right wing) is notorious. The €50bn spent are good
proof. One of the branches with most problems is that which will reach Oviedo in Northern Spain. To do
so, it is necessary to cross the Cantabrian Mountains,
and this means tunnelling. But the Spanish modus operandi is not going to be
deterred by anyone or anything. If for the Gotthard tunnel in
the Alps 10 year of geological studies were required before doing the
tunnelling, a few months should be enough for the Pajares tunnel. The result, a
botch that caused a hydrological imbalance of 10 to 12 hm3 per year between two
adjacent river basins, the Cantabrian and that of the Duero river, resulting in
a tunnel that is more like a river, and works that have drained €3.2bn —so far.
An endless nightmare.
4.
The
Bridge On the River Cau-Cau. Azvi, a Spanish construction company based in
Seville, has committed a huge gaffe in the construction of a bascule bridge over the
river Cau-Cau near the city of Valdivia
in Chile. The gaffe was no more and no less than to place one of the leaves
of the bascule the wrong way round, so the lanes shift and don't meet at the
middle of the bridge.
5.
S-80
Submarines: The poor image goes beyond infrastructure construction, and
extends to other activities, like weapons building. The most relevant example
we can find is the new program of Series 80 submarines for the Spanish Navy.
Because of a design error, the submarines have an excess weight of around 70 to
100 tonnes, so it's impossible for them to surface once submerged. In other
words, they sink and won't float again. It sounds like a joke, but it's a very
expensive one, since the budget for the 4 S-80 units is over €2.2bn, which will
now have to grow to repair the malfunction. Yet another botch up.
All
in all, in Spain efficient economic resource allocation doesn't seem to be a
priority for the country's ruling elite, regardless whether the right-wing
Partido Popular or the left-wing PSOE is in power. These huge budget overruns
at the taxpayers' expense doesn't seem to concern the political class. A real
symptom of the Spanish disease. This is one of the reasons —not the only one—
for Catalans to want to build a better country, away from the practices that
assault the citizens unchastened.
Àlex
Furest
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