The National Confederation of Construction (CNC) has denounced this Friday that almost 2,000 works have been left without a winner because in the contest no construction company has gone to the tender due to the low prices offered by the administration and the rise in prices of the raw material. It is mainly civil works of City Councils and Autonomous Communities that will be financed with European funds.
The rise in prices of materials and energy costs are contributing to small and medium-sized companies not attending this type of contest because the accounts do not work out for them. And due to rising inflation and the war in Ukraine, it is difficult to calculate how long material prices, which have already increased by 33%, will continue to rise.
The CNC realized that between October 2021 and January 2022, 484 works were left deserted for 229.77 million at a rate of 474,741 euros each project. Of those works that did not manage to be awarded a company to carry out the work, a total of 200 were in Catalonia, which is at the head.
Due to this boom at the end of last year, CNC has been collecting information, through its federations, and has quantified 1,992 works for 882.57 million without a successful bidder between October 2021 and September 2022. In that period, Catalonia remains in the lead with 378 works, which represents an amount of 130.31 million and the average amount of each work if it stood at 344,761.25 euros. It is followed by Castilla-La Mancha (226 works valued at 101 million), the Basque Country (168 deserted tenders with a hole of more than 62 million) and Andalusia and Castilla y Léon, both with 147 unfulfilled public contracts, for 105 and 56 million , respectively.
The employers assure that most of the projects that are tendered do not take into account the extra cost of materials and do not include price review clauses. The employers ask the Government to issue a decree law to review more ambitious prices and free of conditions.
It is a unique fact since historically the companies bid below the price offered by the administration to take the cat to the water. And now, they do not dare to go to the tenders because the final budget can be diverted much upwards.
