The city’s Contentious Court Number 2 has received the lawsuit filed by the company that is in charge of maintaining the rental bicycles, Siex 2000. This claims the City Council to pay for the services provided from December 15, 2018 to December 15, 2019.
The judicial procedure is in the phase of answering the demand, but this phase has not yet been processed. So, for now, it has just started and there is still a while until the court makes a decision.
However, this claim, which is around 200,000 euros, represents a new discussion between the Intervention, the local government and a company from the Ruiz Group. To this same conglomerate belong Tubasa, the concessionaire that manages the buses and that a few months ago saw another economic claim rejected for the deficits of 2019 and 2020, and the maintenance of the river park.
Part of the controversy lies in the fact that the company and the City Council intended to extend the current contract until 2018 for the maintenance of the rental bikes, which are provided under the name Biba.
Therefore, the company continued to provide the service for twelve more months. The problems arose when the municipal intervention refused to pay the invoices because the extension had not been processed correctly and, ultimately, there was no contract in force. That 2019 was the previous election year and the bikes kept rolling.
It was in December 2019 when the City Council announced that the bicycles would stop working for two months to fine-tune the service and expand the network of stations.
In March, three months after the announcement, the pandemic broke out, the confinement put people from Badajoz at home and the rental bike service went unnoticed. In fact, the City Council used the virus as an argument to explain the continuous delays in its reactivation.
Until on October 14, 2020, the City Council announced that they had again awarded maintenance to Siex 2000. The award amounted to 608,166 euros for three years and five months. In December 2020, two months after announcing the contract, the rental bikes were still in storage. So this contract is still in force. Siex 2000 and the City Council are still related by Biba.
The councilor who led the Transport delegation, Jesús Coslado, is still in charge of the area. He refuses to make statements about the legal claim or explain what happened during those 12 months so that the company could not collect. Municipal sources refuse to rule on a procedure that is in court. The company resorts to the same argument and does not want to make statements about the claim that is already in the Contentious Court Number 2 of the city.
Chronology
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2009. Inauguration of the bicycle rental service, Biba. The Board provided the initial infrastructure and the City Council was in charge of its maintenance for 7,000 euros per month. It was born with 175 bikes and eight bases.
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2012. The PSOE denounces the payment of 100,000 euros to Siex 2000 for maintenance, despite the fact that it was not working for a year. It resumed in December 2012, after breaking with the company awarded the maintenance: Prensal SA.
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2014. The City Council puts out to tender the maintenance of the bikes, which it awarded to Siex 2000 for a period of four years and provided for a two-year extension. The annual cost is 169,400 euros.
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2018. At the end of 2018 the contract expires, without activating the extension. Siex 2000 claims payments from December 15, 2018 and for one year, until December 15, 2019.
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2020. In January, the City Council announces that it is interrupting the service to expand the network and carry out maintenance tasks. In October they announce a new contract, for which Siex 2000 will receive 608,166 euros for it for three years and five months. It is still in effect. Currently, it has 30 bases and 110 bikes.
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2022. The computer system change halted several bases for months, prompting complaints from users.
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2023. The company denounces the City Council for non-payment and works with deficiencies.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.