Alicante withdraws and will not appeal the green zones contract

The Alicante City Council has ultimately decided not to appeal the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV), which condemns the council to pay nearly one million euros to the company Urban Environmental Management (Geamur) for the 'improper exclusion' of this company from a green zones service contract.

This was stated by the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for the Environment, Manuel Villar, during the press conference following the local government board meeting held this Tuesday. 'It's not worth it,' he noted, later insisting that, in his opinion, there is an 'absolute lack of motivation' in this resolution.

Villar also defended that 'the people of Alicante have noticed the improvement' in the service with the new awarded company --S TV Gestión-- , while maintaining that 'what had to be done' was done at the time for the contract because the council 'was supported by municipal technicians'.

In this regard, when asked if this fine of almost one million euros will affect the municipal budget, the Deputy Mayor explained that it will not, as a 'different way will be used to pay that debt'.

In addition to this compensation for its exclusion, the City Council will also have to compensate Geamur for providing the green zones cleaning service outside of contract between July 2018 and December 2020. In this case, the cost exceeds 700 thousand euros. Thus, on February 14, the Supreme Court dismissed the contentious appeal against the TSJCV ruling that sided with the company. The decision is now final and cannot be appealed.

Shortly after the legal text was known, the mayor, Luis Barcala, explained that aside from the assessment made by the legal services of the Alicante council, 'this is a consequence of the tripartite, which did not do its job and did not put the new contract out to tender'.

During the period from 2018 to 2020, the company had to take charge of providing the service despite being out of contract. Therefore, the council will have to pay compensation of 599,612.57 euros, plus 84,665.10 in late payment interest. This amount corresponds to the company's claim for price updates, personnel costs, and machinery and material. These requests had to be assumed by Geamur despite being out of contract and the new one not being tendered. In his justification, the judge considers that the case does not fall into those susceptible to a cassation appeal, so he does not assess the substance of the matter.