The new cleaning contract for schools and municipal facilities in Elche, which includes new provisions such as the inclusive pavilion and Jayton, remains paralyzed. Last April, one of the bidding companies, Clece, filed a special appeal in contracting matters with the Central Administrative Court for Contractual Appeals (TACRC) against the award to the UTE formed by FCC and Obras P. Selva, the current service providers. The UTE's proposal amounted to 10.2 million euros.
Due to this appeal, the procedure has been automatically suspended as a precautionary measure. The court has indicated that the damages that could arise from lifting the suspension would be difficult or impossible to repair, thus agreeing to maintain the suspension. Meanwhile, the City Council has had to continue settling invoices to the current contractors for 450,000 euros, as the service cannot be interrupted.
Clece ranked second in both lots of the tender: schools and municipal facilities. The fact that the procedure is pending resolution means that the City Council continues to pay invoices to the current concessionaire, which is the same UTE, even though the previous contract expired two years ago. These payments are made with omission of fiscal control, known as 'reparos'.
According to councilor Claudio Guilabert, the bidding companies continue to suffer the economic imbalance carried over from the previous award, which was made before the approval of the new collective agreement for the 140 workers. The entry into force of this agreement caused an economic imbalance for the companies, leading the administration to a potential illicit enrichment by having a concessionaire providing the service at a deficit.
At the time, this deficit led to the resolution of the previous contract to put it out for a new tender. The starting price of the new contract was doubled, from 5 to 10.3 million euros, to include the salary improvement for the staff, which increased by 12% with the new collective agreement. The current concessionaire requested compensation from the City Council for this increase, which was initially rejected but later recognized.
The situation of the workers, with a new agreement initially not applied, was a problem for them and for the concessionaire, the UTE FCC and Obras y Servicios P. Selva, which took over the service three months before the agreement was signed. Now, with the new labor agreement and the increased municipal investment, everything seemed to be on track for normality. However, the appeal filed by Clece keeps the renewal paralyzed, forcing the local executive to continue settling invoices outside the contract.
