only the city of fuzhou It has the same population as all of Catalonia. It is a coastal city, with a humid climate and its inhabitants have their own language, which they speak in addition to Mandarin. A kind of -saving distances- great Barcelona from where just two weeks after the state of alarm was decreed, the first million anticovid masks arrived for the Generalitat de Catalunya. The material left Fuzhou, went to Guangzhou, from there it flew to the El Prat airport and stored in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, a municipality of just over 12,000 inhabitants in the Alt Penedès region where the Generalitat has one of its main logistics centers (Logaritme). This was one of the many ‘express’ operations operated by public administrations to import material against the virus and that required intermediaries and involved a millionaire expense.
The achiever of the Fuzhou-Sant Sadurní bridge was the company I-Tech Holding Group Limited, a company with links to Hong Kong and no prior history of transactions with the Generalitat. Of that first shipment, I-Tech only charged the Catalan public treasury 200,000 euros for transportation. Well, according to the contract Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), consulted by this newspaper, that million masks came as a “donation”. That “donation” transported by I-Tech was followed by four more contracts in less than 10 days, between March 31 and April 9, for a total value of 50.9 million euros. These provided the Catalan health system with six million face masks, two million white coats and half a million biological protection suits. “All the contracted material arrived at its destination in the agreed conditions”, they affirm from the ICS.
The ICS he paid for the surgical ones at 0.65 (he bought 4 million) and the FFP2 at 2.2 euros (he bought 2 million) on April 2. The 2 million gowns were paid at 16 euros per unit and 23 euros each for the 500,000 high-protection dresses. The requirement for medical supplies in a stressed market with little stock during the first of 2020 raised prices. How did the Generalitat find out about I-Tech Holding? Here the nexus established chinese bridgea consultancy of Chinese origin and well connected in Barcelona with the Foment del Treball and Pimec employer associations.
Another firm that sold masks was Barna Import Medicala Catalan family business that has multiplied by 40 its billings with the Generalitat and in the last year accumulated 94 million euros in contracts. This company charged the FFP3 at 6.4 euros, the FFP2 at 4.3 euros per unit and the surgical ones at 0.7 euros per unit in the contracts registered between May and June 2020. However, in a massive purchase of 6 July, the Generalitat paid 2.9 million euros for 11 million surgeries (0.265) and 2.5 million FFP2 (1.95) without VAT (4.8 million in total). In an order on July 28, the price fell to 0.12 euros per surgical procedure (the Generalitat bought 12.6 million units) and the FFP2 to 1.35 euros (it requested 1.9 million).
In the same way that a venture capital firm considered that one of the most lucrative businesses at the outbreak of the pandemic was to invest in medical equipment, the computer equipment company Saytel he saw his opportunity in the rise of telecommuting. This company, managed by Santiago Benito Martinez and group property Seidor, has signed 120 contracts with the Generalitat de Catalunya since 2020. The vast majority for smaller amounts, with the exception of one negotiated without publicity and awarded by the Department of Education. Its amount amounts to 29 million euros. The rest of the 119 contracts do not add up to one million euros among all.
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That great contract that Saytel signed on August 28, 2020 consisted of the sale of 79,824 portable devices and “associated services” for schools in the province of Barcelona. Not at the same level, but during the first year of the pandemic, this company received similar but smaller public contracts with other Catalan administrations. As is the case with Barcelona’s town hallof which he received 863,192 euros.
Saytel was not the only ‘one hit’ company, that is, a great success and the rest were minor pieces. Philipsfor example, obtained a tender for technological equipment maintenance services for the Institut de Diagnòstic per la Imatge for a value of €7.8 millionbeing the most frequent amount among its 570 contracts of €1,383. EITHER Fraikin Assetsa French vehicle rental company, to which the Generalitat leased a total of 382 DGP vehicles for a value of €23.7 million. The most frequent amount among the 48 remaining contracts that he signed with the Catalan administration between 2020 and 2022 was 4,320 euros.