Canary Islands tenders 4.1 million for the waste management of intercepted cayucos

The Government Delegation in the Canary Islands has opened the tender for the service of destruction, loading, transport, and waste management of vessels of irregular immigrants intercepted on the coast of the Canary Islands, with an estimated value of 4,106,665.20 euros. The announcement is published in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) no. 261, dated October 21, 2026, in section V-A of public sector procurement (pp. 55613 to 55615), under official reference BOE-B-2026-34244 and file 202635000004.

The contract depends on the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory and is processed by the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands, located at Plaza de la Feria, 24, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (35003) and NIF S3516001I. The contracting authority is identified as a state authority whose primary activity is public order and security, and the place of service provision is the NUTS region ES70, corresponding to the Canary archipelago.

The announcement details that the file was sent to the Official Journal of the European Union on October 14, 2026 (ID 2026-000649380) and that the submission date of the announcement itself is also October 14, 2026. The document appears signed by the Government Delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Francisco Pestana Padrón.

A one-year contract starting in December

The service is structured as a fixed-term contract for one year, which will begin on December 1, 2026 or, if formalization occurs later, the day following said formalization. The contract will likewise be considered terminated when the maximum approved budget is exhausted.

There are three CPV codes defining the provision:

• 90512000: waste transport services.
• 90513000: non-hazardous waste treatment and disposal services.
• 90520000: radioactive, toxic, medical, and hazardous waste services.

The procedure is open and variants will not be accepted. Bids must be written in Spanish and may be submitted electronically; electronic invoicing and payment are also permitted.

Required solvency and award criteria

Regarding economic and financial solvency, the bidder must prove an annual turnover, in the best of the last three available financial years, of at least one and a half times the average annual value of the contract. Alternatively, classification in Group R, Subgroup 5 is permitted, which in any case is optional for the contractor.

Technical solvency is accredited by a list of the main services of an equal or similar nature performed in the last three years—management, transport, treatment or disposal of waste, or the scrapping and dismantling of vessels or vehicles—whose cumulative annual amount in the year of highest execution is equal to or greater than 70% of the average annual value of the contract, supported by certificates of satisfactory execution. The integration of solvency through external means and the participation of temporary joint ventures of entrepreneurs are permitted.

The award criteria are distributed as follows:

• Economic offer: 70% of the weighting.
• Improvements in environmental management: 15%.
• Reduction of response time: 15%.

Among the execution conditions are social considerations, linked to the verification of payments to subcontractors and suppliers, and environmental considerations: the correct management of all waste in accordance with the hierarchy established in Article 8 of Law 7/2022, of April 8, accredited by certificates from authorized destination managers, and the adoption of measures to prevent any spill or contamination of the waters and the maritime-terrestrial public domain during removal, lifting, and transport operations.

Deadlines, opening of bids, and appeals

The deadline for the receipt of bids or requests to participate ends at 23:59 hours on November 13, 2026. The opening of the economic offer envelope will take place on November 16, 2026, at 09:00 at the headquarters of the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and will be public. The bidder is obliged to maintain their offer for two months.

The competent body for appeal procedures is the Central Administrative Tribunal for Contractual Appeals, based in Madrid, and the deadline for filing appeals is 15 business days starting from the day following the notification or publication of the appealable act.

The contract is relevant for the municipalities of the archipelago, which recurrently face the removal and treatment of abandoned vessels following arrivals on the Canary coasts. The tender establishes for the first time in an official document the economic volume and environmental conditions of this task, with a weight of 70% reserved for the price and 15% for the reduction of response time, a decisive factor in preventing the cayucos (small boats) from remaining on the coastline.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 261, of October 21, 2026, Sec. V-A (Public Sector Procurement), pp. 55613-55615 (official reference: BOE-B-2026-34244).