Public Gardens Cleaning Contract in Arona
Arona now has the specifications to put the cleaning of public gardens out to tender. The local council annulled the agreement from 31 July, amended the document, and approved it definitively, with votes in favour from the municipal government (PP-CC-Vox) and Nueva Canarias, opposition from Más por Arona, and abstention from the PSOE. The tender budget is nearly €28.6 million, to be paid over five years. “This is the most significant news for the municipality in recent years,” stated the mayor, Fátima Lemes, concluding the debate on this matter during yesterday’s ordinary council meeting.
A Correction
The agreement rectifies the decision made by the council over a month ago. On 28 August, a municipal technical report recommended “reverting” the file due to administrative clauses that reflected deficiencies affecting the tender budget and the estimated contract value. It did not include the amount arising from the agreement reached between the workers and the current contractor. This was highlighted by the external consultant whom the local government (PP-CC-Vox) hired to evaluate the specifications, as reiterated by Socialist spokesperson José Julián Mena.
“This file cannot wait a second longer”
This delay in a file that affects a service which “cannot wait a second longer,” as recognised by the Councillor for the Environment, Clara María Pérez, was attributed to “human error.” However, it led to two appeals from both the sector’s employers’ association and a union. Both sets of specifications have received favourable reports from Interventions, Legal, and Environmental technicians, Pérez stated before the council.
An External Report
The PSOE spokesperson, José Julián Mena, criticized the councillor for the payment from public funds for a document whose contents were not taken into account in the initial specifications, asserting that the matter arrives “late, poorly and by force,” and expressed that the situation generates a “loss of trust” among socialists, who voted in favour on 31 July and abstained yesterday.
In light of the ongoing disagreements between the two councillors, Más por Arona spokesperson Pura Martín simply reminded that they had requested to table the matter a month ago and pointed out that the specifications approved yesterday “neither improve labour conditions nor the service.”
