Valencia City Hall defends that the Albufera service management contract is only specific advice and that it aims to improve the service. The municipality denies the outsourcing of the Devesa-Albufera service, dependent on the department headed by the Vox spokesperson and which will cost one million euros for two years, and justifies it by the lack of own resources.
In November, the Local Government Council published on the procurement platform the proposal for the management of the Devesa-albufera service, worth half a million euros – VAT included – on a multi-year basis. Compromís appealed to the Administrative Tribunal for Contractual Resources (TARC), considering that it is a secret privatization, and the administrative body has just temporarily paralyzed the procedure.
In the report sent to TARC, where it proposes the rejection of Compromís’ appeal, the municipality defends the need for an external contract and its legality. The Contracts Department, then headed by councilor José Marí Olano, declared that the considerations of councilor Sergi Campillo are simple political hypotheses and have no basis. However, the Mayor, who is an experienced lawyer, made certain considerations in case the Court considers it appropriate to resolve the substantive issues raised.
Marí Olano explains that this is a “specific consultancy” contract and that it will include “proposals for improvement” and “specific reports”. “The contract currently being tendered aims precisely to achieve as efficiently as possible the objectives of the Devesa-Albufera Service, such as the development of specific plans and technical reports that support them,” indicates the resolution to which elDiario.es had access. This is justified given the insufficient resources of the Devesa-Albufera service, materialized in a report from the service itself, under the direction of Vox. “The human resources available to the service are not sufficient for the specific development of what is planned and for the workload that all this implies,” defends the contracting mayor, who emphasizes that they only have one teacher and three technicians to manage the service.
The council denies that a company is used to resolve files: “At no time is it indicated in the PPT that reports will be prepared for the exercise of public power reserved for civil servants, such as the resolution of administrative files.” The proposal, continues the resolution, “is precisely that, a proposal for a management program, a planning that will only develop logically if it is approved by the bodies entrusted to it by the Government Council and the Delegation and with a budgetary appropriation and with the corresponding reports from the municipal technicians and the required inspection services, the rest are presumptions of a political nature but without any basis”, censors Marí Olano in his writing.
What is contracted is a consultancy service which will be reflected in this PGA proposal logically supported by a technical report from the contractor, which is incorporated in the object of the contract, underlines the project manager, while recognizing that the main object is the training service in environmental matters.
The councilor underlines, in a long writing, that “these are specific administrative opinions, which is why the need for a program capable of meeting its objectives and contents is determined accompanied by analyses, studies or technical reports that support them, modeling of future environmental planning scenarios as well as, where appropriate, evaluation, monitoring and measurement of interventions in the natural environment, and will include proposals for improving the environmental management of the Park as well as the issuance of specific reports”. And remember that to date, education or awareness activities are carried out through minor contracts or agreements with non-advertising entities.
Councilor Campillo appealed to TARC to consider that he intends to outsource the service and that there is a violation of contract law. He opted for the special court because the contract represents a significant amount of public resources, which presents substantial defects and causes specific institutional and functional damage, because it modifies the way in which the City Hall executes public policies in which the councilor has the right and duty to intervene. The Town Hall considered that the councilor was not entitled to appeal, even if the TARC accepted his request and paralyzed the procedure as a precautionary measure.
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