Sa Unió, Gent per Formentera and the Socialist Party have already cooked the motion of censure. motion of censure against Llorenç Córdoba that will be voted -and will go ahead, unless there are last minute surprises- in the plenary session of December 27th, thus consecrating Óscar Portas as the new president of the Consell Insular de Formentera.
As a backdrop to this story with a thousand faces, the mega-contest under suspicion of the the mega-contest under suspicion of the chiringuitos, which, although not initially which, although it was not initially the trigger for the political and institutional crisis unleashed in November last year, it has been the conflict that led to the resignation of the coalition’s councilors and the dissolution of the Governing Board. A turning point. The political responsible for the contest was the PSOE, Gent per Formentera supported the whole process and Sa Unió finished off the operation by awarding the eight lots of the beach bars and some lots that had been left deserted. Thus, it seems the world upside down. And is that Sa Unió, GxF and PSOE are going to throw Cordoba for wanting to avoid the rigging of the contest under suspicion and that, among other things, has allowed seven of the eight concessionaires of the beach bars were the best scored thanks to the changes in criteria introduced by the Bureau of Contracting with respect to the bases and with the envelopes open.
The contest under suspicion
Among the various points of conflict between Llorenç Cordoba and the councilors of Sa Unió, which marked the institutional crisis of Formentera, there is one that stands out and sealed the fate of the hitherto president of the Consell insular: the contest for the concession of new beach kiosks that is riddled with irregularities. Throughout the last year, La Voz de Ibiza unveiled, almost always exclusively and alone, the various irregularities in the case. Although the contest was announced in November 2021, when Ana Juan Torres was president of the Consell, when 2024 arrived, the most profitable lots of the beach kiosks were still not awarded. The former concessionaires denounced at the beginning of this year irregularities in the process and asked to annul the contest. Cordoba took note of the complaints and proposed in March to declare “desert” the contest for lots 3, 19, 24, 27, 35, 38, 43 and 50 in the file of transfer of the rights of exploitation of seasonal services on the beaches. He wanted to avoid the bill for compensation that the Consell de Formentera is otea. Based on a legal report from the Consell, Cordoba argued that none of the bidders in the tender for the kiosksfor the beaches of Formentera had “presented a real proposal of the necessary staff in their project to cover the working hours of the kiosk”. Sa Unió dismissed the proposal (which it called “reckless”) and with the Governing Board rejected Córdoba’s move, who was recused and decided not to participate in the Contracting Committee.
Irregularities
Since then and until today La Voz de Ibiza has denounced numerous irregularities in the contracting process, which did not prevent that, with Cordoba out of the process, Sa Unió awarded the kiosks in April, prior to the summer season. These are the main points that accumulate suspicions about the contest: The Contracting Committee changed the rules of the game established in the bidding specifications of the mega-tender for the 50 lots of kiosks. mega-tender of the 50 lots
of the beach services. La Voz de Ibiza verified that there were, at least, six changes in relation to the original criteria established in the tender, and that they were implemented after the bids were made. Not only that: the bidding documents had been modified after the opening of the bid envelopes. These modifications to the bidding documents were not mere formalities: 7 of the companies that received concessions would not have won without these changes. All this led to numerous legal proceedings initiated by former concessionaires, who pointed out, among other things, influence peddling. The modifications -such as a table that distributes the points for each requirement and was added a posteriori or the minimum number of complementary offer services-were driven by the then Environment technician Ana Fernández Molerowho resigned in the midst of the accusations and was also challenged by the former concessionaires. Among other issues difficult to defend, Molero valued 75 technical offers knowing the economic offer of competitors with the approval of the secretary, a cross-contamination that affected 50 companies. To raise more suspicions, sources of the Consell have told La Voz de Ibiza about the disappearance of a key computer file to clarify irregularities in the contest. During the process, in addition, former concessionaires were denied access to information of the contest, such as the time trace. Even though, since February 2023, there was a legal report from Litoral that demanded the Governing Board to deliver the requested information to the bidders who had lost; otherwise, they would fall into a “legal defenselessness”. On the other hand, one of Cordoba’s arguments for declaring the tender void and which was rejected by the Governing Board was that, according to a legal report, the companies had to have between 15 and 20 employees to cover the time slots required in the tender, but none had such a staff. Moreover, at the controversial meeting of the Governing Board on March 25, the interim auditor Pablo Serra used arguments contrary to the tender documents under suspicion to overturn the report.
All this led to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard to open an investigation into the process of awarding the kiosks in Formentera, after taking statements from several councilors and officials of the Consell Insular after Cordoba had brought the case to the attention of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Beach season
In addition to the irregularities throughout the contest, during the last summer season, several problems were reported in the services provided by the winning companies. Among them:
- Excessive occupation of the beaches was denounced, with the installation of umbrellas and hammocks in unauthorized areas.
- Juanjo Costas and the Consell ‘authorized’ a kiosk concessionaire in es Migjorn to bury pipes without a license under the protected dunes.
- The Consell Insular itself recognized important irregularities in the management of the beach bars and other tourist services on its beaches, such as the lack of lifeguards and lack of qualifications of personnel, and began to investigate.
- During the summer, Daisee Aguilera operated a sailing school despite having a permit denied by the Govern.
