Construction works in Murcia, in a file image. /
Community construction entrepreneurs demand “the establishment of an automatic price rebalancing system that allows companies to deal with this extra cost”
The National Confederation of Construction presented this Thursday a report on the tenders that are being deserted due to the increase in prices of raw materials. In total, there are 500 tenders throughout the national territory without any company having been awarded the works that add up to a total of 230 million euros. Of these, 35 tenders (7%) have a budget of more than one million euros. “The tenders come out with prices from 2017 and 2018 and do not reflect the price increase that is currently being experienced,” complained the president of CNC, Pedro Fernández Alén. In the case of the Region of Murcia, two tenders were deserted for an amount of more than 3 million euros.
According to data from the CNC, 200 tenders totaling 50.4 million euros remained unawarded in Catalonia alone. In Galicia, 96 worth 20.5 million. In Andalusia, 46 contracts for 35 million and, in the Basque Country, another 24 projects for 9.4 million. The tendered work with the highest budget that was deserted amounts to 37 million euros and the average amount for deserted public works is 475,000 euros.
In addition, according to estimates by the Employers, 40% of the works in progress have been paralyzed or contracts have been cancelled, to which must be added all the tenders that were left without a bidder. This represents a brake on the execution of European funds (more than 70,000 million euros directly or indirectly).
From the Regional Federation of Construction Entrepreneurs of Murcia (Frecom) they join «CNC’s claim to force the inclusion of a price review clause in both current and future contracts. This is something that the Government has been working on for months with negotiations between the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance and that is still pending the approval of the Department of Economy headed by Vice President Nadia Calviño.
“It would be a matter of establishing an automatic price rebalancing system that allows this extra cost to be dealt with and, therefore, takes into account the alterations subsequent to the presentation of offers, both upwards and downwards, in order to provide stability. to contracts,” they said.
In recent months, Frecom has held meetings or communications with all the administrations that act as contracting bodies in which “they have been asked to update the prices of materials for construction projects before proceeding with new tenders, a large part of which were valued at prices prior to the current crisis’.
Likewise, as they point out, “it has been requested that in the new tenders the revision of prices be incorporated into public contracts, that for those tenders in progress and where the rise in prices has produced an evident imbalance, the modification of the contract is allowed. to enable the restoration of the economic balance of the same and finally, given the generalized shortage that is taking place in many of the raw materials and construction materials, the contracting authorities must allow an extension of the execution of the contract.
From Frecom they warn that “if these forceful measures are not adopted immediately, economic activity and employment in the sector will soon begin to suffer, with the consequent danger in the execution of European funds. The EPA for this quarter already shows the loss of 3,000 employed in the Region of Murcia, placing the number of employed at 40,900 workers in the construction sector.
