Friday, December 29, 2023, 2:45 p.m.
The Torrevieja garbage contract was already a headache in the last term just to award it, but, in its course, it is already becoming a disappointment even for the government team itself. This past summer, the external audit company hired by the City Council witnessed a multitude of non-compliance with respect to the offer presented by the winning company, Acciona, to the tender. The mayor, Eduardo Dolón, in the inspection plenary session convened by the opposition, assured that he would undertake sanctions worth 319,000 euros for this and would reduce the July bill by 548,000 euros. Almost four months after that, the PSOE denounced this Friday that there is no sanctioning file open against Acciona. The government has been quick to deny it and assures that the area commanded by the mayor, María José Ruiz, “is currently working on this file for imposing penalties.”
The socialists, says their spokesperson, Bárbara Soler, requested on October 11 “access or copy of all the files that are being processed or have been processed in this City Council against the company Acciona for non-compliance with the solid waste collection contract, transport to landfill, street cleaning and cleaning and maintenance of the coast of the municipality of Torrevieja. She says that they did not receive a response until they warned that they would go to court to request protection for violation of the right of access to information that all councilors have.
Thus, on December 18, 2023, Soler says, the general director of Urban Planning, Víctor Costa, responded that “after verifying the documentation on file at this City Council, there is currently no file initiated on the matters required in your application.”
The response, confesses the leader of the Torrevieja socialists, was so “disconcerting” that they thought that either it had been a mistake, or they did not want to give them access to the file. This is why, she says, she decided to do the verification herself, contrasting it with the officials and technicians of Urban Cleaning and Contracting and assures that they did not have an open disciplinary file either. “That Eduardo Dolón lies full after full to the entire citizens of Torrevieja is not a surprise and we have assumed that part of our role is to uncover his falsehoods.”
Hearing procedure
The City Council's version, as could be expected, is totally contradictory. In a statement, the Councilor for Urban Cleaning, María José Ruiz, states that on August 31, the report of the technician in charge of supervising the contract regarding the invoice for the month of July was made, which specifies the non-compliance carried out. by Acciona and the company was given a hearing to present allegations, which were presented on September 25.
In these allegations, Ruiz continues, “it is observed that the cost structure applied in these allegations does not correspond to the one presented in the escrow, the original cost structure is requested up to two times from the company and, in “When this information was received on December 4, the municipal technician began to economically quantify the services not provided and a final report was issued that was sent to Contracting on December 11.”
In this sense, he states that what Soler said is false and that “they are working” on the sanctioning file, which “is being processed and will be resolved as quickly as possible.” All at the same time, he adds, that “the Urban Cleaning department continues to report the following invoices for August, September, October and November, quantifying the services not provided for their inclusion in future invoices.”
Likewise, the mayor of Aseo Urbano adds that the technician in charge of supervising this contract is not exclusively dedicated to it, “since he is also working on other municipal contracts, as is the Contracting Department.”
«Flat rate of 25 million»
For Bárbara Soler, the councilor's statements confirm that there has been no will until now to address this sanctioning file and highlights “the neglect of functions” of the PP government team. «We maintain what was said in the audit plenary session. We are witnessing absolute inaction that means that the City Council is paying Acciona a flat rate of 25 million euros from all Torrevieja taxpayers with a free bar of non-compliance without any consequences for the company. And the worst of all is that, to the trademark of Eduardo Dolón's PP, which is to act badly and late, blatant lies are now added.
The councilor of Aseo Urbano, for her part, assures that the PSOE's problem is that “it knows that we have opened the way to solve a problem, that we are working to ensure that this contract is fulfilled 100% and we are achieving it, so lies and attacks this government team so that citizens believe that nothing is being done. The steps must be firm and, of course, haste is not good.
Compliance with sentence
This Friday's statements from both Soler and Ruiz have coincided, in another order of things, with the day on which the Local Government Board decided to abide by the favorable ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community that endorses the award of the garbage contract to Acciona. The court rejected the appeal presented by another of the companies that participated in the competition, the UTE formed by STV and Valoriza.
#PSOE #Torrevieja #denounces #sanctioning #file #garbage #company #government #denies