The government of Carlos Mazón took more than 10 months to formalize a contract for an “advanced monitoring and decision support system for risks derived from flooding” for the Valencian Security and Emergency Response Agency , dependent on the Ministry of Justice and the Interior. directed by Salomé Pradas. The contract was formalized just three days before the day of the disaster caused by DANA in several Valencian regions, according to the documentation available on the contract portal.
The Executive of the Pacte del Botànic began the procedure, after having approved the decree of the Valencian Emergency Unit (UVE), the project that Mazón overturned just four months after his arrival at the Palau de la Generalitat. With the decree approving the UVE, it was “necessary to have” software tools to “predict the behavior of meteorological and hydrological risks”, according to the specifications.
Elisa Núñez, first Minister of Justice and Interior of the government formed by Mazón with her Vox partners, continued the arbitration process, inherited from the current head of the regional portfolio on which emergency management depends, Salomé Pradas. However, although the award took place on December 13, 2023, the contract was not formalized until October 26, three days before the catastrophic DANA.
The “software” for forecasting the behavior of meteorological and hydrological risks, as confirmed by several sources, was not operational during the first meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi).
The file justifies that “it is necessary to have software tools to predict the behavior of meteorological risks having a particular impact due to their characteristics on flooding, all within the framework of the Special Plan Against Flood Risk, and the rest of the planning tools and both in prevention and during the emergency and post-emergency phase for use in the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat.
Next generation funds
The contract, awarded to a joint venture formed by the companies Hydromately Innovate Solutions SL and Aquatec Proyectos para el Sector del Agua SAU, had a budget of 68,464 euros to begin implementation in 2023 and a gradual increase until 2025, by Next Generation funds. The total amount of the contract was 811,687 euros, corresponding to the annuities between 2023 and 2025.
The procurement table analyzed the offers in November 2023 and, in December, the SEI was considered to meet the requirements and therefore awarded the contract. But it was not until July 1, 2024, seven months later, that the then Minister of Justice, Elisa Núñez, authorized the incorporation of budgetary remainders into the Valencian Security and Intervention Agency. ’emergency.
A week later, the autonomous government broke up and Mazón had to reorganize his troops. Salomé Pradas becomes Minister of Justice and the Interior. Four months later, the regional secretary and director of the agency, Emilio Argüeso, appointed after this crisis, signed the service contract a few days before the tragedy.
Why did the Consell take 10 months to continue the procedure? The Ministry of Justice and the Interior and Emergencies did not respond to this newspaper’s questions, asked last Friday. The regional secretary who signs the contract claims to have been informed of the pending files when he took office.
The breakdown of the executive pact and its subsequent restructuring would explain part of this period. Vox left the Consell in July and Mazón restructured the department in one day; Far from carrying out an in-depth overhaul, he used the troops he already had within the Executive and the party.
The next stage of contracting, already with the changes made by the PP to the Government, took place on October 15, when the Valencian Security and Emergency Response Agency “took charge of the expenses derived from procurement” of “software”. “The allocation is conditional on the effective existence of an adequate and sufficient credit once the budgets of the Generalitat for 2025 and 2026 have been approved,” specifies the contract signed between the representative of the UTE and the regional secretary.
A “software” born from the Valencian emergency unit
The technical specifications allude to the decree creating the Valencian Emergency Unit (UVE), the project created by the government of Ximo Puig and eliminated by his successor, calling it an “event” inherited from the Pact del Botànic stage . The decree creating the UVE established the obligation to launch an analysis and evaluation unit in the event of crises derived from meteorological phenomena, the implementation and staffing of which were already “in progress”, according to the technical specifications of the software contract.
The specifications, signed by the Deputy Director General of Emergencies, Jorge Suárez, requested a tool “already fully operational on the date of presentation of the offers”. “The tool must have highly specialized features for emergency management and risk analysis, with basic event management solutions not being acceptable,” the specifications add.
The award of the contract was also conditional on the fact that the “software” could operate without a network connection, “with the limitations inherent in the lack of functionalities based on data exclusively accessible via the Internet”. The tool, according to the specifications, must also be capable of “analyzing, recording and interpreting as many sources as possible” and “issuing alerts based on its own algorithms or those approved by the scientific community » on, among other things, the expected consequences. rain, the vulnerability of property and people and the accumulation of water in urban areas.
Vox management in case of emergency
Carlos Mazón left emergency management to Vox, under the government pact he signed shortly after winning the elections. He appointed Elisa Núñez as Minister of Justice and Interior, who left the party when Santiago Abascal ordered the breakdown of regional government pacts with the PP.
During the first summer she was head of the department, the advisor held positions appointed by the PSPV-PSOE in her positions until she found someone from the party to entrust management to. In charge of emergencies, he placed Ángel Javier Montero Hernández, former senior official of the PP at the Generalitat, with Alberto Fabra, former provincial deputy and lawyer at Chiva town hall. Despite his obvious links with the PP, it was then said that the appointment had taken place at the suggestion of Vox.
In July 2024, when Vox broke with the PP, Mazón restructured the government in an express reform, just one day after the ultras left. It places Salomé Pradas, lawyer, former senator and until then Minister of the Environment, at the head of Justice and the Interior.
Secondly, he appointed Emilio Argüeso, expelled former senator from Ciudadanos and local police commissioner on leave, whom he named regional secretary, and Alberto Javier Martín Moratilla, firefighter and emergency technician, as general director of emergencies and fire suppression. . These appointments took place on July 12.
