Last night we showed you the David L Mckoy building Belmopan - owned by Social Security - and built with 8.2 million dollars of workers' money.
But 3 million more has been spent "retrofitting" the building - bringing it up to standard.
That would be fine and well if it were a private company - but the fact is - such a construction disaster would never happen with a private enterprise - because the owners - would have been there to make sure their money wasn't wasted on an inadequate structure.
And that's the same role that the Social Security Board of Directors should have played in making sure that they got value for workers' money. But something went wrong - and in an investigation spanning weeks - Jules Vasquez found out that Social Security got what they paid for: a low budget building with corners cut in critical areas. Here's part two of our investigation.
Based on this request - Social Security - to its credit - flung open the doors of the David L McKoy Building and had our team do a complete, all-access walk through.
Engineer Dr Dwayne Thurton is the project manager spearheading the retrofitting - both in design and concept. While he declined an on camera interview - he answered all our questions in person. He's the one leading what looked to us like a salvage job - and it is VERY involved.
Lawrence Ellis, Director - SSB Board
"Vertically, the building was good, but after we did the studies we understand that if we had an earthquake or if we had a hurricane we could not, I could not 100% and the committee and the board could not 100% say the building was 100% safe."
And to make it safe, this is the breakdown from New Buildings - the company that built the original structure and was then contracted to retrofit it. It calls for extensive structural and retrofitting works - and adds up to almost a million dollars.
First the beams had to be fireproofed, by spraying them with a coating - so that meant opening up the ceiling….
And then spraying each of the beams with the coating and then these fire hydrants had to be installed, On every floor
And then of course, this stabilizing structure had to be joined on to the existing steel frame.
And these counterpart cross members installed don every floor.
It's a lot and probably unprecedented retrofitting work for a structure of this size.
Jules Vasquez
"Where was the due diligence and oversight when this is being built, I mean how approves this sort of thing?"
Lawrence Ellis, Director - SSB Board
"Well, I don't want to cast any aspersions as to where it went wrong so we at the building committee, we officially decided and we have forwarded to the board that we will, we are requesting a complete review of the building."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you able to trace it in your abacuses of events are you able to trace all the problems to the seed of single event or a single a poor decision made at any level at the corporate level at the design level, at any level?"
Deborah Ruiz, CEO - Social Security Board
"At this time, I would not be able to point a finger, I think it's a systemic issue In terms of the whole methodology, so we would have to analyze fully all that went wrong."
Jules Vasquez
"But social security builds buildings, you all have buildings all over this country, how could you all have gotten it so wrong?"
Deborah Ruiz, CEO - Social Security Board
"I don't think we got it wrong Jules, in terms of the..we have a nice building at the end of the day."
Jules Vasquez
"It looks nice from the outside, but inside it's a nightmare, CEO!"
Deborah Ruiz, CEO - Social Security Board
"No, it's not a nightmare, Jules."
Not a nightmare, maybe, but certainly a Frankenstein structure.
And, the first thing you might want to say is who built this thing!? It must be the contractor's fault!
That's Fabros Construction - a company that did not have a history of building structures of this scale, but blaming that enterprise is not so easy.
The fact is the then Social Security Board of Directors accepted the lowest bid, which was Fabros for just over 6 million dollars. Other, well known contractors were quoting 9 million and above.
Juliet Thimbriel who sat on the board and later chaired the Building Committee told us she flatly opposed Fabros selection and voted against it twice at the board level. Why? Because of his inexperience building such structures.
But Chairman of the Board, Doug Singh had all confidence in Fabros. Singh is credited as the driving force behind the project.
He told us he supported Fabros low bid because he felt the office building could be constructed affordably - and still feels that the structure as Fabros built it is satisfactory. He feels that all the retrofitting is unnecessary and a profiteering scheme.
It also became clear in our investigation that Singh introduced Fabro to the supplier for the Chinese made glass windows - the same kind used at Singh's resort, Blue Zen - where Daniel Fabro had been a consultant.
In a September 2021 letter to the SSB Board, Fabro writes, quote,
"it was agreed and understood that Fabro's Limited was to build a quality building on as cost effective a budget as possible."
He adds,
"SSB knew that some items purchased from China would not have test certificates and other similar documentation available…but that we were to ensure that all items purchased were of the best available quality."
Most alarmingly, he also notes, quote,
"Fabro's Limited executed and completed this entire constructions project without receiving a Central Building Authority approved set of plans"
Fabro told us they wanted a champagne building on a beer budget.
And that seems to be the consensus the building was built cheap, about $130 dollars a square foot - by a contractor without the requisite experience. He says he took a huge loss - and at that price per square foot, we would want to believe him.
Jules Vasquez
"It was a misconceived decision, what you pay for is what you get."
Lawrence Ellis, Director - SSB Board
"I could agree on that, there were some, I don't know if you call it ill advised decisions, but, it didn't turn out the way they planned it."
Jules Vasquez
"Where was the due diligence and oversight when this is being built, I mean how approves this sort of thing."
Lawrence Ellis, Director - SSB Board
"Well, I don't want to cast any aspersions as to where it went wrong so we at the building committee, we officially decided and we have forwarded to the board that we will, we are requesting a complete review of the building."
Fabro says he was not a consultant on Singh's Blue Zen but, quote, "merely briefly assisted with the project management while Doug Singh was out…."
We must stress that the project was spearheaded under the former board of directors appointed under the UDP, and the retrofitting started when the new board came in with the new government.
So, now you've seen most of the building's problems - tomorrow we'll tell you what's being done to fix it and to ensure that fund contributors get value for their money.
