Public Works knew collapsed building was illegal since 2007

Santo Domingo.- The Public Works Ministry was aware the building that collapsed Saturday in the Ensanche Ozama sector was being built without the permit since March 2007, according to a statement to the press.

"It was in March, 2007, with the building advanced at two floors, when the people in charge went to the Public Works Ministry to submit the request for a license. Then, Construction Department technicians did the necessary observations. The first observation was that they were constructing it illegally and had to fulfill the following steps to continue with construction," the document says.

Public Works said the builders didn’t submit the soild studies, structural calculations, vulnerability study and the details on the foundation or footer.

Nonetheless the construction, of four floors with gazebo on the roof, was ongoing until its collapse. The reason for the collapse, preliminary technical studies note, was a mistaken structural calculation, precisely one of the documents the builders failed to produce.