Benidorm terminates the ORA contract due to the company's non-compliance and will seize the deposit

The plenary session of Benidorm City Council has been approved today by a large majority, with the votes of the PP government and the Vox councillor and the abstention of the PSOE, to resolve the contract for the management of the blue zone and the ORA due to non-compliance by the concessionaire company, as well as proceed to the seizure of the deposit of said contract. A decision that, in addition to the technical reports of the faculty management and legal advice, is endorsed by the Consell Jurídic Consultiu (CJC), which has ruled favourably on the proposed resolution given the proven non-compliance.

The Councilor for Mobility, Francis Muñoz, explained that the proposal approved today includes starting the procedures to put out to tender the new contract and has clarified that the current company “must guarantee the provision of the service” until there is a new concessionaire. Likewise, the company has reiterated that “for reasons of public interest” and to “not cause further harm” to users, “it will cease collecting amounts unduly accrued.”

Precisely this improper and excessive collection is one of the seven very serious breaches committed by the company and accredited by the City Council, to which is added the failure to communicate the additional collection of supposed non-approved management expenses; the reduction of personnel assigned to the contract without municipal authorization; the cessation of technical assistance; the lack of an office open to the public on a street with regulated parking; have an ATM that does not dispense money; and, finally, not having office materials and equipment.

As the technical reports indicate, five of these breaches are immediate causes for the termination of the contract.

Also in contractual matters, the ex officio review file of the plenary agreement by which the extension of the management contract for the l'Aigüera underground car park was approved was unanimously initiated. The spokesperson for the local government, Lourdes Caselles, explained that this file comes after the resolution of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency sent on November 29 in which the City Council was given three months to adopt this decision; decision that “we will bring to full effect in less than a month.”

Caselles recalled that the City Council has shown "the maximum collaboration with the Agency", sending all the requested documentation, collecting "all the necessary reports", presenting allegations to the body's provisional conclusions as there is a discrepancy regarding the interpretation of this administrative act, and complying with “the two recommendations” included in the final document.

The local government spokesperson has highlighted the speed with which, at the request of the mayor, Toni Pérez, the municipal technicians have prepared the reports to initiate this ex officio review file, thus complying with what is recommended by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency and the requested by the Tribunal de Comptes.
After the start of the file, Caselles detailed, “a hearing will be given to the company” that was in charge of managing the parking lot, now recovered by the City Council; and also “an opinion will be requested from the Consell Jurídic Consultiu” and “the Agency and the Tribunal de Comptes will be informed.”

It was also unanimously agreed to authorize the extension of the management contract for the Benidorm beaches for one more year, until January 2025. The councillor of Beaches, Mónica Gómez, has indicated that this extension is provided for in the contract and has “ all favourable technical reports.”

With the same result, the transfer to the City Council of the ownership of the five-square-meter Delfin Tower building to relocate an electrical and control panel of the existing rainwater pumping station at the junction of Aigües Street with Vicente Llorca Alós Avenue.

Unanimously, and based on what is established by the Contract Law, the plenary session has transferred to the company Aljamil Benidorm SL the concession of the parking spaces at the municipal market, Tomás Ortuño Street and Ametlla del Mar Avenue.

In the same plenary session, the modification of tax ordinances number 1 regulating the Real Estate Tax (IBI) and number 17 regulating the rate for the provision of the service of collection, transportation, valorization and disposal of solid waste has been definitively approved. urban.

Regarding the latter, the Councilor for the Treasury, Aida García Mayor, recalled that the increase in this rate is given “above all by Law 07/2022” issued by the Government of Spain, which establishes that “the rate for the benefit cannot be deficient”, to which is added the law approved by the previous government of the Generalitat that increases the costs of this service.

García Mayor has indicated that the modification of both ordinances is “more than motivated and informed.” Before this final approval, and based on the technical reports, the plenary session has rejected “the claims and allegations” presented to the modification agreement “because they are not by the law”, for “coming from people who do not have the of interested parties” as they are not taxpayers or because “they were submitted after the deadline”.

The councillor has expressed “the utmost respect” of the local government team “to the people who have presented the allegations to both ordinances,” and has clarified that the dismissal of these claims “is technical.”

Finally, with the vote of the PP and Vox, the plenary session has approved a motion from the popular municipal group to show the City Council's rejection of “EH Bildu or any other political force that does not condemn, without cracks, ETA's terrorism” and that “integrated those convicted of blood crimes into its lists” reach “the government of the city of Pamplona or any other municipality in Spain.”

 
Extraordinary dispatches

Through urgency, the plenary session has approved the continuity of the waste collection and street cleaning service for the year 2024. The Councilor for Contracting, Aida García Mayor, recalled that on December 18, the plenary session approved “the tender for the service”, which “has already been published in the Official Journal of the European Union” and for which “offers can be submitted until next February 6”. “While this new contract is being tendered and for reasons of public interest and since it is a basic service, it is necessary to approve the continuity of the service,” which is currently provided by the company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC).

García Mayor has stated that the continuity approved today will be valid until December 31, 2024, or, failing that, "until the beginning of the new contract, if it occurs before that date."

Likewise, he clarified that the cost budget for the service that accompanies the proposal approved today "is provisional" and that the Engineering area will issue new reports to clarify the assessments made by Intervention on issues such as "the increase in costs of personal". The councillor has stressed that "there is no objection" to the continuity of the service, but rather "economic warnings" to this provisional budget and that "they will be clarified" by the corresponding technicians.

The proposal has been approved with the votes of the local government, the vote against the PSOE and the abstention of the Vox councillor.