State Dept. Financing Additional Ecuadorian Police Facility Projects

The construction of new counterdrug facilities across Ecuador is continuing unabated in 2006 with U.S. State Dept. help, recent procurement documents show. One of the latest projects will unfold in the Port of Tulcan, Carchi Province, just outside the nation's northernmost border with Colombia. A separate endeavor involves construction of an antinarcotics police facility in Esmereldas, capital city of the Esmereldas Province and the location of a main port and terminal for Ecuador’s national petroleum pipeline. The launching of these projects immediately precedes Ecuador’s unrelated cancellation of contracts with Occidental Petroleum, an action that national officials say is due to Occidental’s purported failure to comply with the terms of its contract. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Tuesday suspended negotiations on a U.S.-Andean free-trade agreement, which were slated to begin this week.

The State Dept. on May 1 began searching for potential contractors to design and build the new police facilities. It is unknown whether the dispute between Ecuador and Occidental -- which the U.S. decries as an alleged seizure of corporate assets -- will affect these counternarcotics initiatives.

According to procurement documents located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps contracting database, the estimated value of construction for the Port of Tulcan facility is between $1,600,000 and $2,000,000 (U.S.). State anticipates it will take nine month from the time of the contract award to substantially complete construction:

The project consists of 2550 square meters of office and residential buildings, 2000 square meters of parking and patio areas, and a 250 meter access road to the facilities. The buildings include troop barracks for 100 people… [plus] kennels [and] jails… It is anticipated that construction will begin as soon as possible after contract award [in June 2006].

The Esmeraldas project “consists of 720 square meters of office and residential buildings, and… include troop barracks for 20 people,” the other procurement document says. Its estimated construction value is between $350,000 and $500,000 (U.S.).

Separately, the State Dept. in recent weeks awarded a $306,500 contract to Marco Cisneros of Quito to design and build a new Ecuadorian Aero Police facility in Pichincha province, the planning of which the NarcoSphere reported late last year.