However, the process never materialized and was bogged down in administrative procedures, according to sources linked to the entity who requested anonymity. The complaint about the building's conditions returned to the forefront after the fatal accident last night when an elevator detached while two workers from an external company were performing maintenance. The accident left one worker dead and another injured. The incident reignited criticism over the precarious conditions of the building and highlighted that the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) had initiated, unsuccessfully, a relocation process that became trapped in bureaucracy. The MEF had reportedly taken the first formal steps to relocate the DGI to a safer building, due to repeated complaints about the poor condition of its current headquarters on Avenida Balboa. According to unofficial versions, the project stalled amid administrative procedures. This is not the first time a relocation has been attempted. 'There was manifest dissatisfaction with malfunctions that compromised operability and security,' the sources consulted stated. This year, through the Panama Compras platform, a public act was published for the moving, remodeling, and adaptation of a new property, including key areas such as the director's floor. The publication indicated an active phase of the process, but the move was never carried out. In 2017, then-DGI Director Dulcidio De la Guardia announced that a change of headquarters was being evaluated because the lease contract was set to expire in December of that year. At that time, up to eight possible locations were considered, and it was insisted that the new facilities must meet international safety standards, especially for the automatic exchange of tax information required by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which had even issued specific recommendations. The elevator accident, whose causes are still under investigation, has once again put the spotlight on the impact of administrative bureaucracy on the management of institutional security and officials. While the MEF has not officially commented on the status of the relocation process, unions and workers question that, despite the precedents and warnings, the DGI continues to operate in a building whose conditions have already been described as risky from within the entity itself. One worker died: Bureaucracy halts DGI's move to a safer building.
