The obligation to dismantle the beach bars at the end of each season during all the years that the concession lasts for a period of at least 30 days, had been part of the arguments of one of the multiple allegations of the former concessionaires to request the Consell Insular de Formentera the withdrawal of the mega-contest under suspicion.
This was disregarded by the Contracting Board that decided to move forward with the awards despite all the recommendations to the contrary: from the technical reports that warned that the award would cause serious damage to the institution to the recommendations of the renowned professor of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). This letter disregarding the allegations was signed by Verónica Castelló herself on May 2, 2024, as “first vice-president, Councilor of Mobility and Environmental Management and acting president” (of the Contracting Committee). The surrealistic thing is that now Castelló herself is looking for all the tools to avoid the dismantling and even discharges to avoid the dismantling and even unloads responsibilities on the previous administration.
The claim
As documents in possession of La Voz de Ibiza show, on February 9, 2024, at least five of the six former concessionaires filed an appeal with the Consell requesting the “withdrawal of the tender” based on a series of allegations. There they warned that the “change in the conditions of the concession with respect to those tendered implies an alteration of the object of the contract that forces the withdrawal of the bidding procedure”.
In addition, they argued that “once the concessionary titles were obtained, whose exploitation rights are subject to assignment, the contractual object defined in the Tender Documents with respect to the kiosk lots and which has been the object of the tender has suffered important variations, so that the offers of the bidders were not formulated according to the new conditions and affects the principle of free competition because other potential bidders could not know beforehand the conditions that would govern the contract”. In point 4, the former concessionaires highlighted the “obligation to dismantle annually“, something stipulated in the General Coastal Regulations and which was in the concession title. Therefore, no one could argue that they were unaware of this requirement. This, they argued, implied “changes in the design and implementation of the kiosks, which by requiring their annual dismantling must provide systems to facilitate it (annual dismantling is not assimilable to an assembly and installation in the eight-year duration of the contract)”. To this was added the reduction of the exploitation period “by conditioning the granting of the concession to the fulfillment of the obligation to dismantle the installations every year, with the consequent alteration of the balance of the contract”. From the 12 months foreseen, the operating period was reduced to 11 months. Neither had it been taken into account in the presentation of the initial offer “the costs derived from the assembly and disassembly processes“.
Negative response
Without resolving the substantive issues to the allegations presented, Castelló ignored those allegations and endorsed the awards as the exceptional president of the Contracting Committee. The response came almost three months later, when the irregularity-plagued procedure was already closed.
“We inform you that on April 26, 2024 the Governing Board of the Consell Insular de Formentera adopted the agreement ‘PRP2024/406 Proposal for the award of the lots of seasonal services of the contracting file for the transfer of the rights of exploitation of seasonal services on beaches for the seasons 2023 to 2028 of the municipality of Formentera’ by which it was agreed to award lots 3, 19, 24, 35, 38, 43 and 50,” was the response.
