Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — As the collection of seaweed along Mexico beaches remains a priority and the Solidaridad City Council contract with sargassum collection company Ar.Co comes to an end, Zofemat says they have received more than 40 proposals from other companies.
Marco Antonio Loeza Pacheco, director of la Zona Federal Marititmo Terrestre (Zofemat), says the current contract is about to end and it has yet to be determined if Ar.Co will be rehired for the upcoming sargasso collection season.
He says that public tender will play a role in the company hired to tend to municipal beaches since they have received between 40 and 50 new proposals.
“Right now, we are moving toward the end of the contract. Procedures for hiring a new company will be initiated if another one is hired. If so, it will be done through a procedure based on the Procurement Law that manages the municipality and state.
“All this is managed from a public tender and will undergo the procedure that is determined by a procurement committee since we have received between 40 and 50 proposals”, the official explained.
The procurement committee, after receiving and analyzing the proposals, will evaluate, among other aspects, the technical and financial operability in which they will make their decision.
He says that if sargasso arrives early, in that it arrives before a new company is hired, there is already an operational program in place to deal with it, adding that they have the equipment and personnel to deal with the possible arrival of up to 5,000 tons of seaweed, which has happened in the past.
Loeza Pacheco says that once the expenditure law is approved, the city will then know in which direction they will go noting that the estimated Zofemat budget for 2020 is 107 million peso, 7 million more than this year.
