The Regional Ministry of Education and Sport, through the Andalusian Public Agency for Education, has put out to tender a total of 898 refurbishment, adaptation, extension, redistribution and improvement works in public schools in Andalusia through the Framework Agreement for works launched for the first time in June 2020 with the aim of streamlining the contracting procedures for interventions costing less than 500,000 euros. These works have been tendered for an amount of 83.8 million euros and 760 of them have already been awarded and 535 have been completed throughout Andalusia.
As far as Almeria is concerned, 129 works have been put out to tender for a value of 11,291,119.80 euros, of which 118 have been awarded and 90 have been completed.
This Framework Agreement, with an execution period of two years extendable to another two and an estimated maximum amount of 395.72 million euros, allows for pre-selected contracting companies, in each province and for each group of actions, to carry out the school works promoted by the Andalusian Public Agency for Education. This makes it possible to deal much more immediately with the problems presented by the centres, as it is only necessary to award the contracts based on the Framework Agreement with the pre-selected companies, in the order in which they have been placed in the awarding of the same.
In this way, it has been possible to reduce the awarding times from up to 4 months needed in other procedures to an average of two weeks, achieving a more agile and efficient response to the needs of the educational centres.
The regional delegate for Education and Sport in Almeria, Antonio Jiménez, has pointed out that this agreement is “the ideal formula for speeding up the reforms and improvements that the educational centres of Almeria need for their maintenance”.
Among the types of actions that are contracted through this Framework Agreement are the following: works on roofs and facades, adaptation of interior spaces, works in exterior spaces, removal of architectural barriers, removal of asbestos, reinforcement and repair of foundations and structure, and execution, repair or updating of electrical, plumbing, heating, voice and data, ventilation, air conditioning, renewable energy, etc. installations. New construction work and extensions to exempt buildings are excluded.
Thanks to the Framework Agreement for works, it has also been possible to access European co-financing for part of these actions through the React-EU funds, which have a maximum completion date of 2023, by shortening the formalities of the different procedures, which would not have been possible with other contracting formulas. Among the actions to be contracted through this Framework Agreement and which will receive European funding are the works for the new plan to install photovoltaic solar energy and adiabatic cooling in more than 400 educational centres for an amount of 140 million euros, foreseen in the 2021 Educational Infrastructure Plan of the Regional Ministry of Education and Sport.
New Framework Agreement to speed up projects
In addition to this Framework Agreement for works, a new Framework Agreement will soon be added, which is currently out to tender, for the contracting of project drafting services, project management and health and safety coordination for the execution of refurbishment works in public educational centres in Andalusia. With a completion period of one year, extendable for a further year, and an estimated value of 37.4 million euros, the aim is to speed up the awarding of these services.
Through this agreement, projects and other construction services of less than 100,000 euros (which corresponds approximately to works of less than one million euros) will be contracted exclusively for refurbishment work, i.e. extensions, improvements, modernisations, adaptations, adaptations or reinforcements of an existing building. Projects for higher amounts and other types of works will continue to be procured by open procedure.
The Framework Agreement for projects includes a total of 10 lots, divided by type of work, amount and geographical location (Eastern or Western Andalusia). The companies that are awarded this tender will be pre-selected in each area and for each group of actions to carry out these works services, and a second tender will be carried out among these companies for the award of the contracts based on these.
Framework agreements are a formula provided for in the Public Sector Contracts Act as a way of rationalising and organising contracting procedures and guaranteeing their publicity, competition and transparency.