The City Council Issues a Request for Proposals for the Maintenance of the CIAT Lawn After Years Without a Contract

The Tenerife Island Council has put out a call for bids for the maintenance of the turf at the Tenerife Island Athletics Center (CIAT), which had been operating without a contract for years, “maintaining an irregular verbal extension since 2015 that could no longer be sustained,” explains Concepción Rivero, the island council’s Sports Commissioner, who adds that the contract award will be finalized in about two months and that, in the meantime, maintenance will continue as usual.

Rivero adds that “it took us about four months to draft the bid documents because that’s what we had to do to comply with legal requirements that weren’t in place when we arrived,” and explains that “we couldn’t issue it sooner because when we began in November to bring order to Ideco, there were so many irregularities that we had to establish priorities in order to handle the volume of paperwork, and that is why we are only now issuing the call for bids—a process that takes at least three months.”

The councilor responds to CC and asserts that “they express concern about the condition of the turf but fail to mention that it has deteriorated in recent months as a result of the fact that the approach they chose to continue extending the contract was illegal, as the technical report states; they know full well that we had to stop extending the contract in order to begin drafting the request for proposals that we are now issuing.”

Rivero does not understand “why they do not show the same concern about the illegal situation we are facing” and asserts that “the condition of the turf will return to what it was once the maintenance contract is legally awarded so that our athletes can use that area.”

Finally, the island’s Director of Sports, Laura Castro, notes that “most of the facilities can indeed be used at this time, and the events affected by the current condition of the turf are the javelin, shot put, and discus throws,” adding that efforts are underway to find an alternative. Furthermore, she notes that “investments have been made to close the opening above the north garden, build an access ramp to the indoor area, upgrade the cardio equipment in the gym—which will arrive this week—fully adapt signage and COVID regulations, and increase funding for cleaning by 60% as a safety measure. In addition, the throwing cage was repaired by replacing its doors, and specific track and field equipment was purchased; in total, 233,434 euros were spent on all these projects.”