The Guadalajara City Council denied Caabsa an extension of the garbage collection concession in the municipality for another 15 years. After 27 years of operations, the current contract with the company will expire on December 17. “The decision was made due to non-compliance by the company,” argued the City Council.
After the resolution, a report was ordered on the existing proposals to provide the service after the end of the contract with Caabsa, so that the citizens are not affected. For this reason, the Municipal Public Services Coordination will be asked to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the current state of the infrastructure for collection, which includes the review of operating costs, proposals for improvement and alternatives for action that have been worked on and developed based on recent experience.
The authority rejected the dialogue table that the company had requested with the City Council and the elected mayor Verónica Delgadillo to analyze the current conditions of the service, “in search of agreeing on joint solutions that would allow the renewal of the waste management model for the benefit of the citizens.”
Failures in garbage collection affect Guadalajara neighborhoods
In light of the termination of the contract, Oscar Hernandez, general director of Caabsa, answers that the decision taken by the City Council was a “sneak peek” or “predator” because the company was never notified, “just a few days before the end of the current administration and after eight months of having submitted the request for extension” of the contract. He questions that no response was given to the request of the dialogue table, without leaving aside that they had submitted in a timely manner all the requested reports regarding the fulfillment of the concession. “We complied in the time that they gave us and we sent them all the documentary information to prove that we complied with each and every one of the clauses of the contract. This confirms our suspicion that there is a government campaign to discredit the company and to carry out this illegality, which was to vote on an alleged opinion in which they do not authorize us to extend the concession that we requested.”
Last week, Verónica Delgadillo announced that the concession will not be ratified: “We need to move to a new model. My priority is to guarantee the provision of the service without failures or setbacks, that it is excellent so that Guadalajara is the cleanest city in all of Mexico.” And he guaranteed that between October and December next year there will be the best option for garbage collection.
Óscar Hernández adds that his legal team will analyze the issues susceptible to illegalities, in search of being able to solve them, although the company remains open to begin the requested dialogue. “We have a lot to contribute to the city. We know and understand that the waste management model is not perfect, it is perfectible, and we believe that we can contribute, as we have done.”
For the interim mayor of Guadalajara, Francisco Ramírez, the service coverage fell to 60% currently, despite the millionaire sums paid to Caabsa (last year they amounted to 387 million pesos). Neighborhoods such as Rinconada El Planetario, Infonavit El Verde, Vistas del Nilo, Lomas de Huentitán and Hermosa Provincia, among others, are the most affected.
Source: informador
