Awakening of the Chamber of Accounts of Aragon. He audit report on public procurement in the Autonomous Community of Aragon, corresponding to the year 2022detected a lack of transparency and non-compliance, also with current legislation, in public procurement.
The audit carried out and reflected in this report, presented today to the Cortes of Aragon, highlights the delay in the publication of the formalization of contracts and the lack of justification for the nature of the emergency in certain contracts.
Furthermore, he emphasizes the omission of the reservation of 3% of contractual activity for integration companies and specialized employment centers and, sometimes, the objectives provided for by contract law in matters of strategic public procurement have also not been applied. not getting greater participation from SMEspromote innovation and development or apply social, labor or environmental aspects to contracts.
Analyzing the contracts and commissions communicated, the report reveals that a total of 65 public sector contracting bodies in Aragon have formalized contracts and execution orders worth 640 million euros. Among them, 2,708 contracts are ordinary for an amount of 513.7 million euros. There were also 407 contract extensions worth 31.05 million and 73 amended contracts worth 2.26 million. Likewise, there were 7,308 minor contracts worth 42.97 million euros and 129 execution orders awarded for an amount of 50.15 million euros.
As part of the contract, the Chamber of Accounts of Aragon detected purchases acquired by SALUD, for an amount of 134.94 million euros, processed without contractualization file. Precisely, SALUD was the organization that spent the most with a total of 280.19 million, which represents 43.8% of the total granted by the Autonomous Community.
According to the report, no negative contracts or certifications were reported for not having formalized any contracts from eight Aragonese public sector entities. It also highlights that, as happened in other exercises, The Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences duplicates information from seven ordinary contracts formalized in 2022 for an amount of 1.32 million.
Likewise, a total of 349 ordinary contracts and 1,019 minor contracts were detected in the report. They do not identify the procurement file code and in 95 contracts awarded the date of the offer is not indicated. In 1,473 contracts The number of bidders who submitted offers has not been identified..
In addition, the transfer includes contracts from entities not part of the public sector of Aragon, with an allocated amount of 0.51 million euros.
Special mention made to Zaragoza Fair of which there is a non-compliance with regard to the publicity of calls for tenders in accordance with current legislation, which, according to the Chamber of Accounts of Aragon, could result in the total nullity of their contracts.
Emergency contracts have been concluded, but their application is not justified
He also refers to Ciudad del Motor de Aragón, SA, regarding which it emphasizes having detected an error up to the amount awarded for the promotion contract for the WTCR World Touring Car Championship. More specifically, it should be noted that the amount of compensation was 25,000 euros, although it was mistakenly attributed to 5.7 million.
The report also indicates that the ministries of Finance and Public Administration, Education, Culture and Sports, Citizenship and Social Rights and Health They have not published their annual hiring plan. The same was detected with other entities such as SALUD and the SARGA company. Furthermore, other departments and entities have done so while the 2022 fiscal year is already underway.
Concerning strategic public purchases, in certain contracts worth more than 5 million euros, it was noted that compliance with actual payment by the contractor to subcontractors has not been verified. In addition, three of the contracts examined did not use social, environmental and innovation clauses as award criteria.
And, in terms of reserved contracts – the law requires that 3% of contractual activity be reserved for integration companies and specialized employment centers – 112 reserved contracts were awarded for 1.99 million, without reaching l legal objective.
In emergency contractIn 2022, 56 construction contracts worth 71.55 million were registered. In this section it appears that the Department of Education, Culture and Sports has carried out this type of contract in cases where its application is not justified because it could have been foreseen with correct planning. This is the case for the construction of classrooms in public educational centers.
About the minor contractsthe report indicates the distribution in recurring benefits, which affects 424 contracts worth 4.7 million, which represents 11% of the total awarded for minor contracts.
Points in favor
However, the report of the Chamber of Accounts of Aragon also has positive aspects. Among them are general compliance with active advertising obligations.
Furthermore, it highlights that the total amount awarded for batch contracts increased by 8.5%, encouraging the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises, while reducing the average number of days of appeal procedures by 7.3 days. of offers. open days and 6.6 days in simplified open days.
Recommendations
The report of the Chamber of Accounts of Aragon also includes a series of recommendations such as approve and publish hiring plans in advanceincluding all contracts, and review procurement procedures to further open them to competition.
It also offers use social, environmental and innovation clauses when awarding contracts and specify more rigorously the basis for calculating services and supplies which is used to determine the volume of reserved contracts.
From the Chamber of Accounts they in turn advise avoid using smaller contracts for recurring needsas well as inappropriate and repeated use of emergency treatment.
The remainder of the recommendations relate to the need to correctly code all contracts which are formalized, notably the Aragonese Health Service, and improve the quality of information in public procurement databases.
Finally, they recommend that the Cortes of Aragon evaluate the adoption of legal measures that make public purchasing of medicines more flexible which are carried out without a contractual file.
