Council faces costly consequences for contract
Town hall may have to find millions of euros to compensate company
THE SUPREME Court (TS) has ordered Guardamar del Segura town hall to pay the company Gestpark €9 million in compensation for a contract it was awarded for the Casal de la Música (music school) project, which was subsequently rescinded.
The situation was criticised by the Partido Popular (PP) candidate for mayor, Toñi Mora and provincial deputy Juan de Díos Navarro.
The contract to build a car park and leisure area was awarded to Gestpark in 2002 but later annulled ‘arbitrarily’ by the Socialist (PSOE) council at the time, they explained.
“Now all of us residents will have to assume a debt of over €12M,” said Sr Mora.
He claimed this was a double blow for the current PSOE mayor, José Luis Sáez, firstly because there is no leave to appeal against the judgment again, and secondly because the payment
plan proposed by the council was rejected by the court for administrative litigation (Contencioso Administrativo).
However, Sr Saéz told state news agency EFE that the ruling is not definitive, as although the town hall’s appeal to the TS was turned down, the case now reverts to the Regional Supreme
Court (TSJCV), which will make the final decision.
He was planning to meet the municipal audit department on Thursday in order to ‘evaluate the situation and see what methodology to follow’, and criticised the PP’s ‘haste’ to ‘condemn’ the town hall.
“We are doing what we can and we will accept whatever happens, as there is no other way, but whenever this may be,” said the mayor.
Meanwhile, Sr Mora alleged the PSOE has ‘tried to hide the real situation of the judicial process, which has ended up backing the company and harming the interests of all Guardamar’s taxpayers’, as they will now have to pay the costs of the decision.
“He made a mistake not accepting the ruling in 2022, which already warned of over €9M in compensation for lost profits,” stated Sr Mora.
“He wanted to ignore the judgment and refused to accept that the company would have to be compensated for the contract being rescinded, according to the administrative litigation court.”