At a press conference held jointly in Orihuela city by the councillors for Beaches and for Contracts, Luisa Boné (Cs) and Paco Sáez, the specifications for the management of 11 beach bars, all on the Orihuela Costa, were announced to the local media on Thursday, however, as the award of the contract is not deemed to be urgent, the procedure will processed by what are described as “ordinary means.”
In presenting the specifications the councillors both seemed rather uncomfortable, hardly surprising in view of the furore they have jointly caused, and neither was there a specific date given on which the contract will begin.
However the fee has been increased 300,000 to 501,000 euros and the duration will be from when it is awarded in 2018 until December 31, 2021; that is, for four high seasons. The requirement for quality Q disappears and it will no longer be necessary for the applicant to be ISO accredited, whether because of the alleged fear of the two councillors following the judicial investigation into the most recent tender process, or simply a case of them buckling under pressure from local powerful businessmen, seemingly a dilution of standards all around.
They state that 55% of the contract criteria will be objective, and based on a mathematical formula and the remaining 45% subjective, and based on management projects.
The tender, which will cover the installation and management of 11 chiringuitos, will require each to provide 3 toilets (men, women and disabled), be installed with defibrillators on which all employees will be trained.
This requirement is necessary because the lifeguard service is active only from 15 June to 15 September and during the Easter period. This will enable them to be able to deal with emergencies during periods when there are no lifeguards available. The area allocated to umbrellas and sunbeds at Cala Bosque (La Zenia) is reduced from 800 m2 to 520 because of the complaints that the concession had taken over most of the beach precluding it from the use of holidaymakers.
Companies seeking to tender for the contract are asked to produce an economic solvency of 751,000 euros that can be based on results of annual company accounts or with a dedicated insurance policy
The councillors stated that, as yet, they are still unaware of the ownership of many of the items provided by the previous contractor, which contracts staff are yet to determine.
However it is still not known how long the whole tender process is likely to take as it depends on the number of tenders that are presented. Companies wishing to tender have a period of just 20 days from Thursday’s publication of the specifications.
They say they have allocated three departmental staff who they have told to deal with the process swiftly, so that the service can be restored to normality in as short a time frame as possible.
