The spokesman for the chiringuitos, Juanjo Costa, responsible for the kiosk in Migjorn – who was ‘authorized’ to bury pipes under the protected dunes without a license-, has acknowledged that the bids submitted in the mega-tender under suspicion were obsolete because they did not include the obligation to dismantle.
This was stated in a recent interview on Radio Ibiza, while awaiting the resolution of an appeal for reconsideration filed with the Consell Insular de Ibiza (Island Council of Ibiza) for the failure to dismantle between January 15 and February 15, as established in the specifications and the concession title.
According to Costa, the economic studies of all the bidders who were presented to the contest of the beach bars “spoke of opening all year round. It was a posteriori when the offers had been assessed that the dismantling was included”.
This had been one of the arguments of the former president of the Consell Insular, Llorenç Córdoba, to declare the tender void, something that had also been raised by the prestigious professor of the University of the Balearic Islands in a report at the request of the then president of the PP of Formentera, José Manuel Alcaraz.
The lawyer of Human Resources of the Consell de Formentera had warned that “.the contest should be declared void because these projects cannot be remedied and the economic projects presented derived from this personnel plan do not comply with the regulations” and “are unfeasible”.
On the other hand, as advanced by La Voz de Ibiza, the report of Felio Bauzá Martorell, the prestigious professor of the UIB who was commissioned by the Consell de Formentera a legal report on the award of the lots of kiosks or beach bars on the island pending, concluded that the Consell has no choice but to cancel the tender and convene a new one .
The professor clarifies in that report that in the “Basic project of administrative concession request for the facilities of the beach services of the coast of Formentera 2022-2027”, signed in June 2021, it is specified that the “seasonal elements” such as kiosks with terrace and bathing, sailing schools, lifeguard towers, first aid modules and platform for the disabled, must be “removable”.
It also warned that the change in the economic scenario entailed “a high risk that the awarded companies would not be able to meet their obligations, which would end up being detrimental to the Consell.
“The rise in prices affects public sector contracts to the extent that contractors must assume a cost that breaks the economy of the concession and goes beyond the principle of risk and chance”, reasons Felio Bauzá who adds that “the economy of the concession has become obsolete before the perfection of the contract”.
The conclusion was blunt: given the impossibility of updating the specifications to the economic situation, the Consell de Formentera had no other way out in law than “agreeing the decision not to award and desist from the procedure”.
In spite of having internal and external legal reports that supported without fissures that the tender should be declared void, Sa Unió questioned that Córdoba’s proposal was “reckless” and moved forward with an award tainted with irregularities.