Benidorm will articulate a ‘Competitive Dialogue’ process to define the street cleaning and collection contract

The Benidorm City Council will articulate a process of Compe Competitive Dialogue ’to define the municipal management project for road cleaning and waste collection services that will govern the specifications of the new contract. At the initiative of the local government, the municipal technicians have exposed today to the members of the Municipal Corporation the details of this process, appraised in the Law of Contracts of the Public Sector.

The mayor, Toni Pérez, explained that “in that municipal management project, what you need and what Benidorm wants in relation to road cleaning and garbage collection will be established”. When preparing this project, the City Council will listen to the proposals and contributions made by companies in the sector, and will incorporate into the specifications of the new contract the solutions that it considers most beneficial for the city.

As detailed by the technicians, the City Council will develop a basis on which it will mark what requirements companies must meet to present an exploitation project for Benidorm and, therefore, to participate in this process of ‘Competitive Dialogue’. Mercantile companies will have a month to present their projects. Companies that do not contribute an exploitation project or that do not meet the requirements to do so, will be excluded from the future tender.

Pérez has indicated that “the process of 'Competitive Dialogue' will be supervised by a table formed by municipal technicians and by representatives of the political groups of the Corporation, groups and local entities, and representatives of the workers, who will be responsible for analyzing the business management projects ”. Once the Compe Competitive Dialogue ’phase is over, that special table“ will define the bulk of the municipal management project, while the fringes will be determined in a process of citizen participation that will be opened afterwards. From both processes, the final project will emerge, which will be the one that is reflected in the specifications of the new contract ”.

The mayor has remarked that “the special table will be the one that will have to define how much Benidorm wants to invest in the cleaning of the city, something that will be marked based on the services and benefits that you want to include in the contract and that previously will have quantified the companies". "Having listened to and analyzed the projects contributed by the companies - he pointed out - we will know what it costs to have rear collection throughout the city or, for example, to have gum cleaning machines, and it will be decided what services are wanted and which are not" .

Pérez has stressed that “we understand that it is a project that should enjoy maximum citizen participation, where all the actors in the city have a voice and representation to choose between the different proposals that are presented to us which are the most appropriate for the system of cleaning and waste collection be worthy of Benidorm ”, and also“ avant-garde with respect to the solutions that exist in the market and work systems that operate in leading cities ”. In short, "we want Benidorm, in this very important issue, to be leading and allow us to continue being leaders in sustainability and also offer the best image of the city."

As the technicians have stated during the Internal Regime Commission, the objectives of the new contract are, among others: the renewal of all equipment, incorporating more efficient and less polluting machinery; the incorporation of container sensorization systems and fleet and equipment management; the integration of all cleaning and waste management works in the city; that the company collects garbage selectively according to European requirements and is responsible for cleaning the entire city.

In addition, it is sought that the invoice paid by the City Council monthly includes a fixed amount and another variable. The latter will be determined month by month based on the tonnage of waste collected, the levels of selective collection achieved, cleaning and maintenance, and so on. In short, "the variable percentage will be determined by the work done and its effectiveness," said Pérez.

Likewise, the new contract could also imply a possible modification of the Environment ordinance and the one that governs the urban solid waste collection rate, so that bonuses and penalties are established for users who recycle or dirty, respectively.

The mayor has clarified that the process of ‘Competitive Dialogue’ will last approximately one month, to be open to citizen participation ”, so at the beginning of the year he would be ready to tender the new contract. Pérez recalled that “although the extension of the current contract ends on December 31, the road cleaning and waste collection service is guaranteed until there is a new award, since the Public Sector Contract Law establishes the mandatory extension for these services basic until there is a new contractor. ” In this way, "although the contract specifications indicate that the extension will be one year, FCC will have to continue providing the service until the City Council awards the contract," he said.