SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 4 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Official College of Architects of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro (COA) has emphasised this Friday the “urgency” of implementing necessary measures to regulate architectural and planning assignments to the public company Gesplan.
This appeal was previously conveyed to the Government of the Canary Islands in November 2023 following a meeting with the current president of the Canary Islands Executive, Fernando Clavijo.
“In April of last year, we signed a collective manifesto alongside all professional associations highlighting this issue; in November, we met in person with the president and still await a response,” the dean of the COA, Nieves Febles, lamented in a statement.
The organisation recalls that the original aim behind the establishment of this public entity was to operate “exclusively” in particular exceptional circumstances, assisting the Government of the Canary Islands in urban planning development and management.
To facilitate this, the mechanism of management commissions was introduced, now through their own resources, a method that permits administrations to directly commission various types of work and services, bypassing free competition.
According to the COA dean, María Nieves Febles, the excessive reliance on Gesplan by numerous Canarian councils represents an “abusive practice”, which adversely impacts competitive freedom, resulting in a “slow death” of professions connected to architecture and planning.
“What was intended as a last-resort approach has now become the norm; commissioning your own company is easier than undergoing the procedures and requirements associated with initiating a free competition,” remarked the dean.
She further noted that this trend is leading to the deterioration of the business landscape, particularly for SMEs.
“If this pattern continues, the Canary Islands are destined to lose skilled and specialised human capital,” she added.
RISE IN EXPENDITURE
Moreover, the professional institution underscores that this direct commissioning approach results in increased costs, as Gesplan sets fixed rates, which would be unthinkable in an open and competitive bidding process.
“Free competition serves as a mechanism of transparency designed, as its name suggests, to encourage the participation of multiple interested companies that must compete to provide superior services and prices,” the dean remarked.
Consequently, these direct commissions extend beyond mere sector impact, as public competitions ensure the quality of services and the most competitive pricing for the services offered.
In this regard, the dean of the COA has emphasised that this directly affects citizens who are deprived of their right to receive the best quality services at the most competitive rates.
“Ultimately, what this practice leads to is that the works and services that the citizens of the Canary Islands should benefit from do not adhere to a transparent process, one where competition among bids guarantees the final quality of the outcomes,” she elaborated.
MANIFESTO FROM PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES AND ASSOCIATIONS
In April, the professional colleges and associations throughout the Canary Islands, barring the College of Quantity Surveyors of Tenerife, endorsed a manifesto condemning the fact that Canary Islands administrations have been “directly and repeatedly” awarding their works and services to public companies under the Government of the Canary Islands.
This document called for an end to the widespread practice of direct awards to public companies, limiting them only to genuinely “justified and necessary” circumstances; bolstering the technical and administrative contracting services of the administrations, and re-evaluating contracting legislation which, while incorporating fundamental principles to foster competition, must aim towards simplifying and rationalising procedures to avoid the administrative paralysis that “grinds” administrations to a halt.
The COA once again urges the Government of the Canary Islands to assess the situation outlined since April to regulate this procedure.
Among potential regulatory amendments and guidelines for the appropriate use of commissions from public companies such as Gesplan, the COA suggests leveraging their services for carrying out “essential, urgent, and necessary” tasks for the administration, confining the commission technique in architecture and planning matters to “unique and duly justified cases”.
Additionally, it has been recommended that these public companies start to redirect their activities towards facilitating intellectual contributions to independent professionals; monitoring and quality assurance of work; collaborating with municipal technical offices to reduce management times and expedite procedures (including technical legal support, fund management, or report preparation) and providing training to enable Canarian professionals to strengthen their expertise in territorial and urban planning.
