After a long process and several attempts in vain, after 12 years since its expiration – the one still in force and irregularly extended dates back to 2001 -, Candelaria has just awarded the new waste, street and coastal cleaning contract to the company Valoriza, which currently provides this service in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
This entity was the most valued, on August 28, by the hiring table. Valoriza Servicios Medioambientales SA-20 surpassed the other three candidates in the final score: UTE ASCAN Servicios Urbanos SL and Torrabonaf Sport SL, FCC Medio Ambiente SAU and Urbaser SL, the latter which has been developing the service currently and since 2001. .
The base tender price includes the amount of 21,782,763.33 euros for seven non-extendable years, at a rate of just over 3.1 million euros per year – not counting building cleaning -, almost one million more than what it costs in the current service. The current cost per year, adding the cleaning of municipal buildings – the new ones are done by Epelcan and the old ones by Urbaser – has a cost of 2,793,514.20 euros.
All these details will be announced this Monday in an extraordinary plenary session and the winning company will have 10 days from that date to present all the documentation.
In 2019, Valoriza was awarded the waste collection service in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with a duration of eight years and a total investment of 150 million euros, which represents an annual bill of more than 17 million for the City Council. As in the capital of Tenerife, Valoriza replaces Urbaser in Candelaria.
The contract was appealed to the courts on two occasions, but the plaintiff companies were not found right, despite the fact that a year later the Santa Cruz City Council had to penalize Valoriza for “making the service precarious.” Until a few weeks ago, Valoriza Servicios Medioambientales SA-20 belonged to the company Sacyr-Vallehermoso, which sold 100% of its assets to the Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners fund for a total of 734 million euros, including debt and equity.
The contract that will be brought to the plenary session on Monday includes the waste collection service, street and coastal cleaning of the municipality of Candelaria, with special services, such as ravine cleaning and weed clearing.
The objective will be to improve quality and efficiency levels, as well as optimize resources. The contract is adapted to the urban development of the municipality. The forecast is that the service will begin operating at the beginning of 2024, if there are no resources from the other contestants.
The rate will increase
The mayor of Candelaria, Mari Brito, already announced two weeks ago that the garbage collection rate will increase, not only because of this new contract, but also because of the price that the municipality will have to pay to the Arico Environmental Complex. Currently, residents pay 72 euros annually for the service.
