The Council will commission a new “more powerful and extensive” audit before deciding on the Tirme concession

PalmaThe Council of Mallorca will commission new legal reports and a new "more powerful and extensive" audit before making any decision regarding the current concession with Tirme for the treatment of urban solid waste. This was explained by the island's Minister of Finance, Llorenç Bosch, during the first plenary session of the Council of Mallorca.

Recently, a forceful Intervention report on the Tirme tariff has become known, which warns of negative consequences of the concession for the public coffers. Since 2023, the Council of Mallorca has made extraordinary contributions amounting to 103 million euros with the aim of containing and regularizing the rates for the treatment of urban solid waste, and this summer the institution approved a new injection of another 41 million and a 10% rate reduction. The issue has reached the plenary session and the socialist spokesperson, Catalina Cladera, has demanded that the Council specify how and when it will apply the document's conclusions.

The plenary session evidenced this Thursday the confrontation between the island government and the PSIB-PSOE. The island's Minister of Finance, Llorenç Bosch, assured that the institution shares the concern expressed by Intervention and that it will accept its recommendations, but has ruled out adopting any immediate decision before having new legal reports and a broader audit on the concession.

"We are absolutely in agreement and concerned about what is in this report," stated Bosch. The minister recalled that in March 2024, shortly after taking office, the island government approved the tariff review following the instructions of the institution's technicians. However, he acknowledged that audits and background information have subsequently appeared that already warned of some of the problems now pointed out by Intervention.

The main point of disagreement would be the application of the CPI increase to certain amortizations, a practice that could have generated an unjust enrichment for the concessionaire. Bosch remarked, however, that it is a tariff methodology applied "for the last 28 years with favorable reports" and warned of the legal complexity of modifying it or claiming the amounts allegedly overcharged. In this sense, he considered it "dangerous" to adopt a decision before knowing all the consequences: "Telling a company that it will now charge less is complex and we could end up in court," he warned.

For this reason, the Council, as detailed by Bosch, will review all possible scenarios with legal reports and will commission an independent audit that is “more extensive and more powerful”, for which they have already opened a file to put it out for tender. “First we will have the reports from our legal services and, when we are clear about it, we will propose what is best for the Council,” he stated, while warning that “we will demand as far as the legal reports tell us we can demand.

Bosch points to Cladera's management

During his intervention, Llorenç Bosch reproached Catalina Cladera for having found, while “digging around,” a report dating back to 2021 with “similar warnings” to those in the latest Intervention report. As he explained, in 2019 a report was commissioned on the tariff formula for the treatment of urban solid waste, and during Cladera's presidency of the Council, in March 2021, she would have already received a document proposing to initiate a contractual interpretation file and to appeal to the Consultative Council if Tirme did not accept the revision.

“She initiated a contractual interpretation file and left it in a drawer,” Bosch accused her. He also reproached the previous government for, after those warnings, awarding Tirme a composting plant in Llucmajor for about 30 million euros.

Cladera replied that if Bosch found that file when he arrived at the Council, he could have reactivated it. “Now it turns out that we already have two reports and he still has to commission more?” she asked. The socialist accused the government of “acting as the opposition to the opposition” to avoid assuming its current responsibilities.

Catalina Cladera demanded the suspension of both the 41-million-euro file approved in July and the tariff revision. She also reproached him for the 103 million accumulated, an “unheard-of amount,” and asked, amidst accusations of waste of public funds that they not delay the conclusions or the application of what the Intervention report warns: “Stop the 41-million file and the tariff revision”.

Bosch closed the debate defending the Council's prudence and reiterating that the institution will negotiate with Tirme when it has all the legal and economic documentation: “Step by step, we will make progress and reach the best solution for the people of Mallorca,” he concluded.

Aid for the war in Ukraine

The MÉS per Mallorca councillor Catalina Inés Perelló also asked during the plenary session about the execution status of the multi-million aid packages announced by the Council to alleviate the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. The institution has approved several packages of measures that have undergone various modifications over the last few months.

Perelló questioned whether these resources have effectively reached their intended recipients. “Many packages and many announcements, but when will this money reach the people and the families?”, she asked. The eco-sovereigntist councillor demanded more speed in the processing of measures that, as she pointed out, were presented as an urgent response to the rising cost of living.

Llorenç Bosch gave a positive assessment and attributed the changes introduced to the need to adapt the measures to the Council's own competencies.

The Minister of Finance explained that the largest programme is the nine million euro one destined for the most vulnerable people and families, which is in the final phase, pending the signing of agreements with the town councils. Also pending formalisation are two million euros for the management and maintenance of public residences.

Added to these items are four million euros to arrange places for people with disabilities through third-sector entities; 2.1 million for local shops, which includes a call for 800,000 euros in commercial vouchers to promote the purchase of products from Mallorca, among others. Perelló insisted that the aid “had to be fast” and has still not reached the families, and she has once again demanded celerity from the island government.