The Arrecife City Council Plenary has approved imposing new sanctions on the company Urbaser for its "breaches" in the city's cleaning service. This figure amounts to 321,200 euros and the sanctions correspond to the current contract, which was awarded to the company in March 2014. The decision was approved with the unanimous vote of the councilors of the Plenary, in the extraordinary and urgent session held this Friday.
The procedure of this "penalty file", according to the Consistory, is due to the "breach of some of the commitments acquired by the contractor in relation to the maintenance of cleanliness in Arrecife." It should be noted that this is not the first time that the company, which was re-awarded the service for 12 years, has been sanctioned for not adhering to its Arrecife cleaning contract. The Consistory even demanded 900,000 euros from Urbaser for breaches in the previous contract, but the file ended up expiring before it was concluded by the City Council.
When the service was put out to tender, it was re-awarded to Urbaser and now, based on the new contract, other sanctions have been approved for new reasons. Specifically, the file includes breaches for a total of 5 different aspects, as confirmed by the Consistory's press office, although they also point out that some have already been "corrected."
No maintenance on containers
The first of these is the "failure to comply with the obligation to maintain, preserve and clean the containers." In addition, Urbaser also failed to comply with the service start-up plan, the schedule in which it is established when they begin to use certain machinery and that "they have to gradually acquire and put into service" different aspects. Currently, these deficiencies have already been "corrected", according to the City Council, but it is penalized for implementing them late.
Another of the company's faults alludes to the authorization required from the City Council to install containers. Urbaser placed them without asking for it, according to that file. It also failed to comply with its obligation to "present a work program with the planning of the service management", and its obligation to carry out public information campaigns.
Regarding this aspect, however, the Consistory points out that the amount that has not been invested so far in this advertising can be compensated with the campaigns that are carried out from now on. In this sense, they have also indicated that Urbaser is "designing" an awareness campaign together with the City Council. Regarding the last aspect infringed, it is the service of collection of domestic vegetable oil waste, clothing and footwear, which also began to be carried out late, although it is currently being provided.