Llinars del Vallès, Santa Susanna and Barcelona City Councils

March-2025

This complaint revealed alleged irregularities in three public tenders, two of which related to the contracting of legal advice services and one, to the supply of printing equipment. The anomalies detected focused on the authorship of several documents included in the different tenders mentioned, which was reflected in the metadata of the computer files and which denoted the possible direct involvement of the successful tenderers in the preparation of key documents in the tenders. After having analyzed each of the contracts and the particularities that the tender had had, the entities were urged to examine the possible violation of the ethical and integrity principles due to the existence of a conflict of interest, as well as the possible violation of the principle of equality between the different tenderers who submitted a bid. In some cases, in accordance with the provisions of the specific administrative clauses, it was urged to review the contract award agreement ex officio whenever it could be verified that the company that was awarded the contract had been granted advantages over other competitors.