TETMA provisional winner for collecting rubbish and cleaning streets in Xàbia

Tuesday 27th April 2021 – CARLOS LÓPEZ with Mike Smith

TETMA (Técnicas y Tratamientos Medioambientales) is the provisional winner of the contract for rubbish collection and street cleaning in Xàbia over the next eight years, a deal worth 5.93 million euros a year.

The mayor’s office reported the result of the evaluation phase of the bids that had been received by the council and analysed by the contracting board, a few hours after the minutes of the last board was published on the State Procurement platform. The issue was raised during the last plenary session of the council in an off-the-cuff comment by Juan Cardona of Compromís regarding the rubbish collection and street cleaning service in which he insisted that the launch of a door-to-door collection service in Dénia has shown that the arguments that it would be very difficult to implement in Xàbia are unfounded. “It shouldn’t be when it’s done in bigger places.”

Councillor Kika Mata (Services) explained that Xàbia does indeed have a specific door-to-door service in the contract but announced that the new deal will give the service a “very important leap”.

Mayor José Chulvi also defended the work carried out by Councillor Mata and her team and stated that “it is a very large contract, the largest of all the alternatives that have been studied” adding that “we will have time to discuss this” but saying nothing about the contracting board’s decision to award the contract to TETMA.

The evaluation of the offers, according to the published minutes, are:

• TETMA: 90.12
• CESPA: 85.13
• Urbaser: 83.83
• Valoriza: 82.65

There were also bids from OHL, SAV and FCC which ranked lower.

TETMA received the best score in the technical analysis as well as in the price that it would charge per tonne collected. This offset its offer with respect to the cleaning of the streets and the beaches which was not the best submitted (see link below). However, the overall evaluation proved to be the best of the seven offered.

TETMA will now have to complete the contracting process by providing all the necessary documentation for public tender and, once everything has been confirmed as correct by municipal technicians, the contract will be made formal for endorsement by the corporation.

If it is finally awarded to TETMA, the company have to start by investing more than 6 million euros in the renovation of the old fleet of trucks as well as light vehicles that are currently for rent. In addition, the new contract will see the arrival of the new brown container into which residents can dispose of only organic waste.

Opposition upset at finding out about the contract from the press

The provisional award of the contract has already sparked controversy at the town hall with opposition councillors claiming that they only found out via the press, something they consider to be disrespectful, especially when the subject was raised during the council’s last plenary session on Monday but both the mayor and the responsible councillor failed to make any mention of the result.