The March 14, 2020 broke into a exceptional situation by a then unknown virus that put all administrations on alert. The requirement of a Urgent answer to adapt the institutions to a daily life confined under a state of alarm, made it usual to emergency contracting to respond quickly to lack of supplies, services and public works.
The Barcelona’s town hall allocated a total of €75.7 million to buy masks, to work to refurbish public space, to equip itself with material so that its employees can telecommute and to reinforce its social services to attend, among others, to the homeless, who were caught without a roof over by the confinement order own under which to confine. A total of 995 contracts They were awarded by the consistory between March and December 2020 to 424 companies and 52 individuals, according to data analyzed by EL PERIÓDICO collected from the municipal transparency portal.
Who got those contracts? From companies like barcelo groupowner of 250 four- and five-star hotels in 22 different countries and who took advantage of the fact that the pandemic cut off the flow of tourists to rent accommodation to the council he directs Ada Colau worth 13.9 million euros, to foundations such as Sant Joan de Deu (1.4 million) or Red Cross (1.2 million), which reinforced home care for dependent and vulnerable people. All this, including food service companies like SERHS food area SL (1.9 million) or security as Barna Porters Seguretat SL (1.5 million) who played a prominent role in the operation of the Fira de Barcelona to welcome homeless people.
The volume of contracts
The social folder It was the one that focused the action of the municipal government during the state of alarm, taking into account that the health system and residences are the responsibility of the Generalitat. Accordingly, the Municipal Social Services Institute of Barcelona (IMSS) was the organization that spent the most through the emergency route, concentrating more than half of the executed budget.
However, public works -with special prominence of the tactical urbanism-, centered a good part of the bulk of the accounts since the council dedicated more than 12 million euros to public works and, of these, 8.4 million euros to tactical urban planning. This is, among others, the expansion of sidewalks and the adaptation of public space to the reopening of terraces.
The accommodation of civil servants to telework accounted for 4.7 million euros between laptops, tablets, mobile phones and licences; while the City Council allocated 3.8 million euros to various advertising campaigns active in the midst of a pandemic to inform Barcelonans about covid or public services at their disposal, as well as to promote economic reactivation after the lack of confidence.
For several of these expense items the Court of Auditors and the Syndicate of Comptes warned the City Council by considering that they did not comply with the emergency processing assumptions contained in article 120 of the public sector contracts law, which only contemplates the use of this express contracting if catastrophic events occur, situations that pose a serious danger or needs that affect national defense. In other words, it is not that they are irregular, but the council should not have opted for the emergency route to process them or should have justified it better. “The Court of Auditors focused only on the emergency contracting of benefits linked directly or indirectly to covid, without detecting no relevant anomaly to demand any type of responsibility”, they point out from the City Council.
The operation of the Fair
Less than three weeks after the first state of alarm was decreed, the Barcelona City Council inaugurated a shelter to accommodate 1,200 homeless people. A space that was open for more than a year and that required a substantial outlay on the part of the consistory, whether it was in the rental of the venue, food, cleaning, covid disinfection or surveillance.
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A total of €5.8 million They went directly to pay for that space, to which many other contracts can be added for other shelter services, reserved for homeless women or people with addiction problems, as well as telephone services for suicide prevention, among others. Hence, companies like progress Y Welfare and Development Association (ABD), limited or non-profit companies, have obtained contracts for a value of €1.4 million each.
The City Council’s transparency data does not reveal a high concentration as far as emergency contracting is concerned, except for the Barceló group, which received almost two out of every 10 euros of the municipal budget allocated in this way. The second company that received the highest amount in contracts was CRC works and services SL, with a leading role in the reform of the Fòrum and a reception for it of 3.1 million euros. the third was SERHS food area SL, with 1.9 million euros in home delivery contracts for vulnerable people or meals at the Fira facility. At the other extreme of these large companies are 52 freelancers, like the one who made a package of masks for municipal staff in exchange for 174.24 euros.