The municipal council of the Hortaleza district headed by controversial Madrid city councilor David Pérez has failed to comply with the requirements of its own call for the award of a €10,500 contract. The purpose was to celebrate the last parade of the Three Kings in Sanchinaro, a residential area in the Valdefuentes neighbourhood.
The Special Administrative Conditions Document (PCAP), the document that sets out the basis for the invitation that awarded the contract to organize the event on January 3 and the participatory bid on January 6 (awarded to another entity without any alleged irregularities), stipulates in its clause 14 that the beneficiary companies had to meet basic requirements. This includes registering or applying to the state’s official register of bidders and listed companies (Rolece). A condition that must be met before the process can begin. However, the winner of the first batch was Eventos Innovate Altea, which did not appear in the aforementioned register at the time of submitting its nomination, although it was indicated that it did so when submitting its bid.
“All bidders who submit their offers through the simplified summary procedure must be registered in the official register of bidders, by the deadline for submission of bids, provided that attendance is not limited. For these purposes, a proposal by a bidder certifying that it has submitted an application for registration in the corresponding register together with the documents required for this purpose will also be considered acceptable, provided that such application is dated before the deadline for submission of bids.” PCAP. Thus, the document opens the door to companies that requested registration without completing it, but always before introducing themselves. Furthermore, the winning bidder indicated that he had already obtained it when he registered for the tender.
This anomaly should have left the competition invalid because it was the only competing company, according to internal sources from the Hortaleza municipal council consulted by this newspaper. But the city council chose to ask the company for documents it did not initially provide. “It is agreed that the bidder for Batch 1 Eventos Innovate Altea SLU will be required to provide registration in the official register of bidders, or, if not registered in the corresponding register, to benefit from the authority to approve the submission of the registration application,” states the minutes of the contracting schedule held on December 17, 2024, to which Somos Madrid had access.
Two days later, a new contracting schedule meeting was held to verify the authenticity of the documents sent by the company to comply with the requirements. This body consisted of five members, all of whom held positions of responsibility in the Council, in addition to the presidency (held by the then district secretary) and the secretary (exercised by the head of the contracting unit).
According to documents seen by this newspaper, the situation led to a dissenting vote from one of the five members who formed the table. This was from the district auditor, Aranzazu Ruiz Muguruza, considering that the information provided did not absolve the company of non-compliance with the conditions contained in the specifications: “The justification given by the offeror in relation to the requirements given by the majority of votes was approved, with the exception of the vote of the auditor because he considered that Clause 14 of the PCAP had not been met,” the minutes stated.
The schedule agreement stipulates that “in the simplified open summary procedure, registration in the role is not a prerequisite,” which reveals that this procedure is not mandatory in this case in accordance with the provisions of Law 9/2017, regarding public sector contracts. On the other hand, the obvious solution is that what requires compliance with said registration is that it appears as a prerequisite in documents previously approved by the Legal Department of the Madrid City Council.
The table takes into account other justifications provided by Eventos Innovate Altea SLU, such as the certificate of application for registration in the ROLES (without clarifying whether the said application was before the start of the award process) or the list of works carried out in 2024 and related to the subject of the contract (other offers and similar activities). According to its website, this company, which is based in Baraquillos del Jarama, specializes in renting floats or holding parades and entertainment events for various popular and family celebrations, especially children’s events.
This is the point in the minutes where the Hortaleza Board of Directors values the company’s proven experience in organizing events of this type, and where the mistake made by the company when raising its bid is acknowledged: “It claims to have committed a material error by indicating on the only envelope for the submission of the bid the box corresponding to the registration in Rolis instead of the box relating to the submission of the application for registration.”
The Madrid City Council denies any wrongdoing
On the other hand, municipal sources confirm that “there is no violation by the Hortaleza Municipal Council,” as “the winning company submitted its offer within the specified period, and the contracting table presented the award proposal, which in any case is not final.” They point out, however, that “additional documentation is required from the company to continue processing the file.” They point out that the company is not registered in Rollesi “because it is newly established.” “By council standards, and as specified in the specification, registration for the role is not mandatory,” they say, even though exactly that specification indicated that such registration was compulsory.
The city council clarifies that failure to accredit the role “does not exempt from the obligation to prove economic and financial solvency.” They point out that “in this case, since it is not registered (which would be a way to prove said solvency), it must specifically justify compliance with the economic requirements required for Group 3: an annual turnover of 510,357.66 euros in each of the last three full years, which documents are required.” They insist that “everything done so far is in strict accordance with the provisions of the tender documents, the Solvency Report, Classification and Special Implementation Conditions (p. 1), and the Public Sector Contracts Act,” although a reading of the documents suggests otherwise regarding specifications.
The explanations do not convince Mas Madrid councilor Miguel Montijo, who questions the character of the president of the district council: “David Pérez has the behavior of a sectarian president. At the same time he exercises as much administrative violence as possible against everything that is uncomfortable for him, especially against the union fabric, and offers facilities to those who praise or cooperate with his beach bars. We are beginning to see the extent of his authoritarian treatment of public officials or his mistreatment.” Awarding the contract according to the technical standards of the official who governs the accuracy of the procedures, the authorized financial controller, is not just another bravado: it is very serious and we will redouble all our consideration and monitoring of every casicada.
A “custom designed” veggie board by David Perez
Sources from the municipal council consulted by this newspaper confirm that the majority of the members of the recruitment table who carried out this operation were appointed to their positions “after the purge that left key positions on the Hortaleza board of directors tailored to David Pérez.” It was headed by María del Rosario Tejero-Trego, the district secretary appointed by Pérez when he came to office, though she was fired soon after because the councilman wanted “someone more loyal,” according to a former employee.
Members of the district’s administration staff and those who recently abandoned it described to this newspaper months ago a “campaign of harassment and demolition of officials uncomfortable with carrying out ideological public action” by the former mayor of Alcorcón. Layoffs and “shocks due to an intolerable environment” left the workforce “without the appropriate qualifications,” according to these testimonies. This – say two different sources who prefer to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal – “led to the reduction of all services, especially some basic ones such as contracting, economic services, or public roads.”
The problems with legislating these new officials similar to Almeida’s chancellor were already evident in a previous controversy, due to another major struggle of Pérez since his arrival in Hortaleza at the beginning of the legislature, derived from his previous position as Minister of Transport in the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso: the “economic and bureaucratic bottleneck” from which critical neighborhood associations say they are suffering. When the social fabric was able to meet with the district coordinator and Perez’s right-hand man, Miguel Angel Lopez del Pozo, he prevented those present from recording the meeting. The groups argued that regulations stipulated that these conversations could be recorded, but Lopez del Pozo ended up standing on the table and leaving.
According to the entities present, the Secretary of the Council, Francisco Javier Velasquez, “refused to implement the regulations and his role was limited to defending that the interpretation of the legislation in this regard is ambiguous.” This is the third person to hold this position since Pérez arrived in Hortaleza in the summer of 2023, after the former regional councilor dismissed his two predecessors. Velasquez’s previous position was head of the legal service, a position that allowed him to be one of the members of the contracting table that awarded lots for Sanchinaro’s parade last December.
In addition to the Madrid City Council, this newspaper consulted Eventos Innovate Altea for clarifications on the award procedures, without receiving any response in this regard at the present time.
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