Sant Pere de Ribes City Council

February-2025

The investigation action was initiated following the complaint filed against the Sant Pere de Ribes City Council for prohibited splitting in contracts for the maintenance and repair of public buildings. Once the action was completed, it was proven that, during the years investigated, in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the City Council awarded minor contracts for maintenance works for public buildings to the same supplier and exclusively for an amount of 1.2 million euros (excluding VAT). The Anti-Fraud Office considers, in accordance with the criteria of the Municipal Intervention, expressed repeatedly, that there has been an abusive and irregular use of minor contracting (161 contracts in three years) which has led to a splitting prohibited by the procurement regulations. The legal classification of these contracts is as a service contract, which should have been processed, as they are recurring contracts and successively treated, through contractual procedures that respected the principles of freedom of access, publicity and transparency, recognized as basic principles of public procurement. For this reason, the action ended with the issuance of a reasoned report through which the irregularities found in procurement were communicated.