The Government of Susana Díaz incurred in multiple irregularities in public procurement

The Andalusian Government, during the period of the socialist Susana DÃaz as president, incurred in countless irregularities in public procurement, in which the use of minor contracts or ‘a finger’ proliferated, not always duly justified, thus violating the law. In addition, the network of public companies, foundations and agencies that are part of what is known as ‘parallel administration’ Andalusian.

These are some of the most striking conclusions drawn from the latest audit report on public procurement by the Junta de AndalucÃa and its related entities, corresponding to the years 2016 and 2017, prepared by the Chamber of Accounts of Andalusia. In the first year analyzed -2016-, the Andalusian Administration awarded 2,789.22 million euros in contracts and in 2017, a total of 2,750.18 million. Susana DÃaz, general secretary of the PSOE-A, was president of the Board between September 2013 and January 2019.

The report details numerous “breaches” both of a “general nature”, and in the “preparatory phase” of the contracts, as well as referring to the specifications of particular administrative clauses. The auditors of the Chamber of Accounts have also found irregularities in the technical reports on the evaluation of offers, in negotiated procedures and in minor contracts.

Contracts ‘to finger’

Through minor contracts, any administration can make a direct or ‘fingerprint’ award to the employer it deems appropriate, provided that the threshold of 18,000 euros and 50,000 euros set for minor contracts in services and In works.

The Chamber of Accounts has detected that in minor contracts for works, supplies and services there have been “successive awards” to the same employer by repeating minor contracts throughout the year, “exceeding at the end of the year the amounts established for minor contracting”.

This practice, “in addition to going against the principle of good administration”, may constitute a “breach” of article 87 of the Public Sector Contract Law, which refers to the fact that “the contractor’s remuneration will consist of a certain price” and that “the contracting bodies will take care that the price is adequate for the effective fulfillment of the contract by means of the correct estimation of its amount”, he says the audit report.

The repetition of minor contracts to the same employer may also constitute another breach of article 86.2 of the same law, which “prohibits the express setting of a price in the limit of the minor contracting in order to benefit from a direct award procedure , by assuming a improper fractionation of the object of the contract “, affirms the Chamber of Accounts.

‘Parallel administration’

It is striking how the ‘parallel administration’ monopolized a good part of the hiring in Susana DÃaz’s stage as president. Thus, the administrative agencies, in 2016, formalized 80.09% of the contracts and committed 65.30% of the amount awarded. Those percentages amount to 74.57% and 63.44% respectively in 2017, the report explains.

The Board agency that formalized the largest number of contracts in those years and committed the largest expense was the Andalusian Health Service (SAS), with 93.07% of the contracts and 89.74% of the amount in 2016; and 89.30% and 82.98%, respectively, in 2017.

For the Chamber of Accounts, “it is remarkable” the volume represented by minor or ‘finger hiring’ in 2016 and 2017. Thus, minor contracts, in a number of 87,477, account for 95.43% of the number total of those awarded by the public sector of the Junta de AndalucÃa in 2016 and 27.92% of the overall amount invested in that year. These percentages amount to 94.38% and 26.73% in 2017.

Likewise, in 30.88% of the minor works and service contracts awarded in 2016 by the public business agencies of the Board, the contracting authority chose to process several files, despite the fact that they were similar features that could be included in a single file that integrated the set of individual benefits, the report highlights.

Slap on the ears

Faced with such a panorama of non-compliance, the Chamber of Accounts slaps the Board on the wrist and recommends that for “cases of continuous and recurring benefits”, the managing bodies resort to “open contracting procedures that guarantee” the principles set out in the Public Sector Contract Law.

The use of negotiated or minor contracting, which proliferated so much in the period analyzed, “should not be extended to more than the assumptions that by their very nature are applicable to them, without this implying a continued use of said figure contractual according exclusively to its amount “.

Negotiated procedure

Another modality is contracting through a negotiated procedure without advertising, a process in which the Administration speeds up deadlines, skipping requirements that must be met in open procedures, which are those that guarantee the greatest concurrence of different offers. This type of hiring is considered exceptional. The Chamber of Accounts has discovered that in the 62,50% of the contracts by negotiated procedure without advertising awarded by the Government of Susana DÃaz in 2016 and 2017 “not properly motivated and the use of this procedure is justified, beyond a simple allusion to the reason for the amount “.

The audit report warns that the amount “as a determining element of the negotiated procedure does not exempt from the justification in each case the convenience of resorting to negotiation, a procedure that, although admissible, determines its exceptionality”.

In addition, in 16.66% of the contracts by negotiated procedure “there has not been an effective negotiation of the economic or technical terms of the contract with the bidders presented”, something that the Law of Contracts of the Public Sector