The Court of Auditors certifies lack of control in express purchases of medical supplies from 13 State agencies in 2020

The emergency contracts of public bodies during the pandemic to buy masks, gels and other health materials registered widespread deficiencies and irregularities, according to a critical report released this Friday by the Court of Auditors.

This is the "Supervision of the emergency contracts concluded in 2020 for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19, within the scope of independent administrative authorities, other public entities and state foundations".

It is part of a broader control throughout the Administration, but

for not respecting procedures and hiring entities without solvency.

It does not, therefore, address what happened in the Ministry of Health or the Community of Madrid, but its conclusions about what happened in the State in general are out of control.

"A significant number of the audited entities have not verified the ability of the awardees to be able to enter into contracts with the public sector,

", reproaches the supervisory body chaired by Enriqueta Chicano. That has meant the "risk of hiring a person without legal capacity or unable to contract with the public sector, or an entrepreneur who did not prove in the legally required manner the necessary solvency to meet the commitments assumed through the contract" without these organizations having sufficiently accredited the urgency of contracting with them and not with others, according to the report.

Another consequence is that companies that were not dedicated to these products or that did not have it in their corporate purpose have been hired.

"In these cases, it was required that the contracting authority justify the impossibility of entering into the contract with companies whose corporate purpose included the contracted services, justification that does not appear in any of the audited files in which the exposed circumstance concurred" .

It has reviewed the "State Tax Administration Agency, Bank of Spain, National Securities Market Commission, Nuclear Safety Council, RTVE Corporation, Carlos III Cardiovascular Research National Center Foundation, State Foundation for Employment Training, International Foundation and for Ibero-America for Administration and Public Policies, Imprenta de Ticketes, Instituto de Crédito Oficial, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo Nacional del Prado and the Center Associated with the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Madrid. His conclusion: "

which would have constituted a good practice in order to adapt the exceptional emergency procedure to the principles of free competition and the selection of the most economically advantageous offer".

Another sign of lack of control is that "in most of the entities that acquired sanitary material (masks, hygienic gloves and hydroalcoholic gel), there is no record of having approved distribution and distribution criteria among internal units or among staff, depending on the case. , of such goods,

that would allow knowing at all times the inputs, outputs and remnants of the products purchased, a practice that would have made it possible for the replacement of products to be carried out when it necessary and in the amounts really needed".

Among the most criticized bodies is the Tax Agency

: "In ten of the fifteen files audited, a generic declaration is included that agrees to the application of the emergency procedure to all the contracts that could be included in the legal assumptions of application of said procedure, instead of issuing the order of execution of individually for each file, which was required by virtue of the provisions of the Public Sector Contracts Law".

Also that "in two of the audited contracts, both referring to the acquisition of sanitary material, there is no evidence that some of the products supplied met the requirements established in the respective Technical Specification Sheets."

And "finally, management deficiencies have been identified, some related to the use of acquired goods,

To reach its conclusions on the 13 bodies, the Court of Auditors explains that it has applied its usual technique of auditing a sample.

"82 contracts of the 134 concluded during the audited period have been audited, which represents 61% of the total of these. In terms of award price, contracts have been audited for a global amount of 7.4 million out of a total of 11 million, which represents 68% of the total".

The Bank of Spain is reproached for what it has paid.

"It has been observed that the prices obtained by the Bank of Spain in the purchase of FFP2 masks have been significantly higher than those obtained on contemporary dates by other entities included in the subjective scope of this audit."

He came to buy the FFP2 mask for more than nine euros in the spring of 2020, above five, for example, from the controversial contract with the company to which the brother of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz, provided services. Ayuso.. The Bank of Spain alleges that "a reliable price comparison should consider a plurality of elements, such as the volume of purchase, the terms and conditions of delivery, the exact dates of the operations and the commercial relations that could be maintained with the respective providers.

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