Auditorium fiasco heads to Legal Advisory Council hearing
The CJCCV will determine if the contract with the architects can be terminated so that the process for re-tendering can start.
Wednesday 6th April 2022 – Mike Smith
Souce: original article – Carlos López (Xàbia AL DÍA)
The auditorium fiasco continues to drag out as the project enter another new legal mess after the contract with Valencian architects San Juan Arquitectura S.L., which drafted the final design of the long-awaited municipal infrastructure, is to be considered by the Legal Advisory Council of the Comunidad Valenciana (CJCCV).
The CJCCV, which advises on legal matters in the autonomous region, will need to confirm whether or not the contract can be terminated early due to breach of its clauses by the company.
This step was confirmed by councillor Ximo Segarra (Finance and Contracting) in response to a question from Ciudadanos spokesperson Enrique Escrivá during the last council plenary session which was held a few days ago.
The councillor explained that, after notifying the architect of the termination of the contract, the company presented several claims, some of the which have been rejected by municipal technicians, and so the file has been sent to the CJCCV for their opinion on the matter.
If it issues a resolution favourable to Xàbia Council, the contract will be terminated and the process to re-start the construction project, which has been paralyzed for almost two years, will commence with the hiring of a new construction manager, followed by the project being put out to tender once again. This will require a price modification due to the rise in the cost of raw materials.
This is the second time that the CICCV has had to decide on the auditorium project. The first intervention was after the original construction company Joca pulled out in early 2018, citing funding issues (it bid almost a million euros lower than the original bid price of 3.3 million euros to secure the contract). A second company, Proyecon Galicia, took on the contract in May 2019 for 2.64 million euros but the project stalled once again a few months later, one again over the price, and, at the time of writing, the site remains untouched.
