The extraordinary costs borne by the construction companies and not reviewed by the State are estimated at 471 million euros.
MADRID, 11 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Association of Construction Companies and Infrastructure Concessionaires (Seopan) has warned that up to 20.5% of the tenders for concession contracts in Spain, already practically non-existent, are left empty after no company participates in the competition.
The employers’ association has warned in a press conference of this figure, included in the Special Supervision Report Relating to Concession Contracts prepared by the Independent Office for Regulation and Supervision of Contracting (OIReScon).
The document shows the low relevance of concessions in Spain, representing only 3.4% of contracting, with an average attendance of 1.9 bidders per contract and 2.2% of contracts not carried out due to withdrawal and resignation of the successful bidders.
The president of Seopan, Julián Núñez, has regretted that the prices of construction materials and energy have continued at levels much higher than those of three years ago. Specifically, compared to 2020, in December 2023 cement, copper and corrugated steel increased by 43%, 41% and 37%, respectively, and gas and electricity by 207% and 134%.
“This inflation continues to condition the execution of public works and limit its attendance, making it necessary to reestablish in the specifications the mandatory nature of the price review procedure, suppressed in 2015 by the Deindexation Law, as well as eliminate the reviewable limit of 20% of the price of the contract, which in 2023/2024 has involved 471 million euros of non-reviewable costs incurred by the sector in State works”, he specified.
Regarding the Transformation and Resilience Recovery Plan (PRTR), and specifically the Autonomous Resilience Fund, endowed with 20,000 million euros, it has warned that it is necessary to extend the execution milestone by at least two years to enable the financing of infrastructures. sustainable public transport and water systems owned by communities and town councils.
Furthermore, Núñez has revealed that he has already sent the institutions a proposal to apply a collaborative model in pilot contracts, which he believes will favor the distribution of risks and responsibilities, the sharing of savings and costs between the public and private sectors, compliance of deadlines and budgets, promote innovation, transparency and cooperation between the parties and reduce litigation.
Looking ahead to 2024, Seopan foresees “a drastic reduction” in public works tenders, after the end of the European funds tender program, which has represented 13.4% of civil works tenders between 2021 and 2023.
With respect to public investment, Eurostat certifies in 2022 insufficient levels of public investment in transport, purification and water supply infrastructure with records that are 46%, 57% and 57% lower, respectively, than in 2010.
With all this, the employers’ association estimates that the public investment needs for the creation and modernization of infrastructure in Spain are at least 240,000 million until 2030, in basic areas related to the mobility of travelers and goods (112,000 million), water and environment (64,000), and energy infrastructure associated with networks, civil works and energy efficiency (54,000).
In this sense, the European Commission’s projections for 2024 and 2025 place Spain in the last position of the EU investment ranking, thus widening the gap between the country and the main European competitors: Germany, France and Italy are going to invest a 65.4%, 62.5% and 42.7%, respectively, more than Spain in this period.
