CONTINUE
In October, the members of the Popular Group Andrés Lorite and Carolina España launched a battery of questions for the operation and maintenance of the Customs Surveillance helicopter fleet. A month later, the Government responded, although not to all the issues raised, and not always to the exact issue on which information was requested.
Especially striking is the response on the date of entry into operation of the four operational bases of the Customs Surveillance Service after Eliance was awarded the operation of the fleet, on March 13 last year. Two of them, Algeciras and Almería, operated from April 2 and 6. The one in Vigo, however, had to wait until September 3.
Only these three have been closed for 205 days in 2021. Curiously, the Executive does not refer to the fourth, San Javier, in Murcia, which has not been put into operation until now.
The Free Union of Air Workers assures that in this situation the Government had two options, according to article 14 of the Administrative Clauses: terminate the contract with Eliance, or impose the corresponding fine on the company, which increases to 3.000 euros per day that the installation does not work.
The union's calculations indicate that the fine that Eliance must face, only in regard to the first three bases -Algeciras, Almería and Vigo- is 615.000 euros, and yet the administration has not made any move to claim this amount.
In the response of the Government to the Popular Group, attention is also drawn regarding the training of the crews. The deputies asked if Eliance had from the first day pilots with licenses to provide that service; that is, to be able to fly with all the devices. The answer, as the successful bidder herself admits, is no, and in fact she had to send pilots to Germany to obtain the corresponding licences, which they did not obtain until the summer.
It is good, the Government, to answer the exact question that the plant limits itself to specifying that "all the crews that provide in the contract have a valid license"; that is, at this time, but not when the award of the operation and maintenance of the fleet for more than 20 million euros.
