The Sindicatura de Comptes has detected a host of incidents when analyzing the emergency contracts made by the Generalitat in 2020 to deal with the outbreak of the pandemic, and in some cases appreciates even undue payments, cost overruns and unforeseen deviations in the regulations.
Specifically, the supervisory body appreciates improper payments worth 7.91 million by the ICS to a foreign company from which respirators were purchased.
The Sindicatura assures that this contract was awarded to a company -Innjoo Technology- whose corporate purpose did not include the activity object of the contract, and that the ICS, at the time of awarding the contract, did not have the corresponding license to import medical devices granted by the Spanish Medicines Agency.
The report confirms that, at the end of the field work to prepare this report, at the end of September 2021, this provider owed 7.91 million to the ICS, a debt that occurred, as reported to the Treasury of the Generalitat, because “the computer system for clearing invoices accounted for with the amount of the advances received failed and the supplier was paid, incorrectly, 7.91 million, instead of compensating him with the advance granted”.
The report ensures that the ICS claimed the amount of that outstanding debt by mail from the supplier and that, at the date of completion of the report, the amount had not been recovered by the Generalitat, reports Efe.
Mismatch between masks received and amount paid
In another file analyzed by the Sindicatura, in this case of FFP2 masks, the total invoicing of the units delivered did not correspond to the units actually received according to the delivery notes.
Specifically, the amount delivered, according to the delivery notes, was 422,400 units less than the amount awarded and paid, equivalent to 206,976 euros of the amount paid.
In two other files, on the supply of pharmaceutical products and RNA extraction material, the total cost was “significantly” higher than the contract award pricedeviations encrypted by the Receivership at 570,005 and 438,206 euros.
This entire Sindicatura report distinguishes between the urgent processing of a public contract, that is, the one that allows the formalization of a public contract to be accelerated for reasons of public interest, and the emergency one, an exceptional mechanism to provide an immediate response to attend to unexpected needs, such as the covid-19 pandemic.
This report of the Sindicatura, prepared in compliance with two resolutions of the Parliament, has audited a total of 6,114 emergency files processed with an awarded amount of 704.05 millionalthough for this it has chosen a sample of 202 contracts of this type worth 403.4 million, as well as four emergency contracts for covid for 121.76 million.
Incidents in the contract with Ferrovial to follow the positives
The Sindicatura also analyzes in its report the contract awarded by the Medical Emergency System (SEM) to Ferroser Servicios Auxiliares, a subsidiary of Ferrovial, for the follow-up of positive contacts and concludes that “although the SEM did not hire and pay more managers of those that would correspond by application of the algorithms of the contract, the dimensioning in number of assigned to the service was excessive“.
According to the Sindicatura, the contracted managers “they did not make the scheduled callsbut its activity was significantly lower than it should have been according to the parameters established in the contract”.
Between October 2020 and January 2021 there was a progressive reduction in the number of monthly telephone calls of 26.3% and, on the other hand, the size of the contract, in terms of personnel assigned to the service, increased by 95.2%, points out the Syndicate.
Likewise, it maintains that during the term of this contract, which was active between June 2020 and January 31, 2021, various workers were on sick leave for some period of time and instead these cases were billed to the SEM with a full-time dedication, “without deducting the amount paid by Social Security.”
The Sindicatura recalls that this contract contemplated a fixed part (7.49 million per year) and a variable part (7.13 million), and that the successful bidder, on the other hand, invoiced 11.79 million during the eight months of the contract, “without ever breaking down the fixed part and the variable part in the invoices issued”.
Contract modifications
The Syndicate also notes Substantial contract modifications, which would have required an emergency new contractand as an example of this he cites the contract made between the ICS and the Abbot pharmaceutical company for the provision of antigen tests.
In this case, the modification of the amount of the contract was 500%, since the initial 4.5 million went to a total of 27 million, by expanding the number of tests from the original million to six million, a modification which was made 47 days after the final award resolution.
Related news
In addition to the incidents mentioned above, in seven files the Sindicatura ensures that the object of the contract He moved away from the needs for the protection of the covidand that in four of these cases it was about periodic supplies, which should have been processed by ordinary contracting.
This public sector supervisory body has also noted a lack of supporting reports in some files or urgently processed contracts that delayed their execution.