The incessant rise in production costs in recent months is leaving many of the tenders launched by the Valencian public sector void. Explains José Luis Santa Isabel, president of the Federation of Public Works Contractors of the Valencian Community (Fecoval), that it is a very common situation lately as a result of the "uncontrolled rise in prices", and he figures in 127 million euros the public works contracts that have been void in the last year in the Valencian Community. They mean paralyzing about 300 works, mostly from municipalities, where if no solution is found, he predicts that "there will continue to be desert works."
Santa Isabel explains that "this is such a long process that, in a stable economy, prices hardly vary, but now it is impossible to adjust them and there is no mechanism in our law, which is so guaranteed, that allows prices to be updated just before they go out "laments the builder. For this reason, they ask the administrations for a mechanism for financial rebalancing of the work to avoid the current abandonment of work in progress or, even, that no bidders appear because "it is impossible to go with those prices."
This situation is occurring the most in the local administration, explains the president of the Federation of Public Works Contractors of the Valencian Community (Fecoval). It happens, for example, in Valencia, where the increase in production costs is behind the delay in some works that should be activated now.
This is the case of the children's playground in the Enrique Granados square, in the Patraix neighborhood, whose tender will have to be published again because the first one was deserted. From the Valencia City Council they explain that the problem lies in the fact that the project was approved with prices that, months after the tender, have fallen "short" after the sharp rise.
The project, announced in November 2021, comes from the 2021 DecidimVLC participatory budgets and was presented with a budget of more than 116,000 euros. After its remodeling, the Enrique Granados park will have an accessible bridge, some slides, a small climbing wall and games.
The proposal was launched by Laura Abargues, a neighbor of the neighborhood, who has been concerned to know if the project would take a long time to start, since every day she goes to the park to pick up her daughters from school. She regrets that it is not running now because it generates "a lack of spaces for neighborhood children to play and in spaces like this one that was being proposed they would be able to move freely," she explains. She defends that this green space, of 15,000 square meters, "is wasted, also taking into account the growth of the inhabitants of the district, each time with a younger profile."
But Patraix's is not the only sustainable gardening project whose contract is void due to the effect of inflation. There are three other contracts that have been left without bidders for the same reason: for example, they explain from the municipal government, it has happened with the tender for the garden median of the Gran Vía Germanías, announced in October 2021.
The proposal sought to reduce noise pollution, as the neighborhood had requested through participatory budgets, and it will involve removing a traffic lane and, in its place, placing a green line. In total, the intervention comprises 911 square meters, had a budget of 120,000 euros and an execution period of a month and a half.
The same has happened with the children's play area in the district of Massarrojos, with a budget of 106,278.87 euros to carry out the work. Therefore, given the current scenario, the council assumes that inflation and its effect on production costs have made the cost of the execution contract not sufficiently "attractive" for bidders, so the process will now take a while. more than anticipated.
