The Anti-Corruption Office has declared the award of Belate "totally void"

The Navarro Office of Good Practice and Anti-Corruption has concluded that there were irregularities in the award of the contract for the unfolding of the Belate tunnel, which make the decision of the Contracting Bureau and, consequently, the proposal for the award "null and void".

This body has today submitted a report to the Foral Parliament, at the request ofthe Committee of Inquiry into Public Works, stating that the procedure violated the essential rules for the functioning of collegiate bodies. In particular, it states that four of its members gave their scores to the President of the Bureau, who established his own with prior knowledge of those of others.

"The regulation does not specify the procedure to be followed by the contracting tables for the evaluation oftechnical offers, but this House believes that a procedure should be established in which all participants have the same information to ensure the impartiality of the scores  and therefore the principles of equal treatment and transparency, "the report, to which EFE has had access, stresses.

In addition, much of the evaluation of the offers was made through the exchange of e-mails, without formal calls or valid meetings. A number of members of the Committee cast individual opinions on the grounds that the scores were unjustified and that there were errors in the proceedings.

The Secretary of the Recruitment Bureau stated in her Individual Opinion of 31 August 2023 that "No member of the Bureau has been rated after contact with previous scores that may contaminate his or her own. It is utterly absurd to appoint a collegiate assessment body, if at last, in practice, the opinion of one is decisive. "

He added that "anything that is not achieved with these minimum guarantees would, in my opinion, force the tender to be cancelled and a new procedure tobe initiated. "

In this regard, the Anti-Corruption Office has stressed that "this individual vote takes place in a context where members of the Recruitment Bureau communicate only by e-mail, and the President refuses to convene a face-to-face meeting of the Recruitment Bureau, despite repeated requests from the Secretary".

The tender, initially budgeted at EUR 78.6 million, was finally awarded at EUR 62.88 million, with a 20% reduction, and the process exceeded the legal deadline by 80 days.

The supervisory body has not been able to determine whether there was a conflict of interest inthe activity of the President of the Bureau, which must be clarified by the Parliamentary Committee. In any event, the report considers it necessary to amend the Foral Law on Public Contracts in order to strengthen transparency and ensure the proper functioning of the recruitment tables.

The First Vice-President of the Foral Government, Félix Taberna, stated on Monday that the Government has not had a deadline for allegations to this report and explained that there are "different criteria" between the Office and the Chamber of Auditors, which issued a report but "did not detect accounting responsibilities or anything else".