UCO detects irregularities in Red.es contracts favouring Barrabés
The Civil Guard analysed internal messages pointing to preferential treatment of Barrabés's company in Red.es procurement processes under investigation by judge Peinado.
Internal messages reveal preferences towards Barrabés in Red.es contracts
"Think of Barrabés as the good one and the others have to come down no matter what." This is one of the key messages that the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard included in a report delivered in February to the European Public Prosecutor's Office, according to El País. The document, now in the hands of judge Juan Carlos Peinado, points to systematic "arbitrariness" in the adjudication process of a contract by the public company Red.es, as part of a separate section of the Begoña Gómez case.
Judge Peinado clarified on 19 June that businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés is the only defendant in this branch of the investigation, for alleged abuse of office and fraud against the interests of the European Union. The UCO concludes that the temporary business association (UTE) formed by The Valley and a Barrabés firm was "the most favoured bidder" due to the irregularities detected by officers during the process.
Favourite from the start and the director's "change of mind"
According to the report, Barrabés's offer was, "from the outset", one of the candidates in which the Red.es Digital Economy team showed "greater interest". The other favoured company was Everis. However, at a certain point in the process there was "a marked change of mind" by Luis Prieto, director of that department, who participated in drafting the tender specifications and signed approval memoranda. The UCO identifies Everis as "the main victim" of the detected arbitrariness.
Among the messages collected, one stands out sent in January 2021 by a technician who participated in drafting the evaluation reports: the aforementioned one concerning the obligation to reduce the scores of competitors. Another technician warned, in the same period, that she had only been able to reduce the score in some cases: "They really are good… faced with a complaint it would be completely unjustified… no matter how hard they push".
Messages revealing internal pressures
In February 2021, officers collected another message that evidences confusion among part of the evaluation team: "If there are preferences… it's almost better to know beforehand… for me nt for learning and datahack are the best, better than Barrabés, what do I do?". Another message from the same month, from a different technician, read: "I don't understand it. With everything falling apart and us making up numbers so that the super bosses point with their fingers".
A month later, in March, a team member noted: "I agreed to review the Everis one and try to lower something in comparison with Barrabés and without looking at the rest." For the UCO, these exchanges reflect a dynamic of score adjustment aimed at a predetermined outcome.
The 15 March meeting as a turning point
The Civil Guard identifies a meeting held on 15 March 2021 as the moment when the director of Red.es Digital Economy intensified his involvement with the aim, according to officers, of "giving a considerable advantage" to Barrabés's company. The next day, a department head sent another message that investigators consider revealing: "Everis's reduction cannot be justified further, which implies 'disguising' it with a reduction of the best ones in general".
For the UCO, "differential treatment" manifested even in penalising aspects of the offers. Officers highlight the "excessive leniency" with which changes prejudicial to the Barrabés UTE were treated, as opposed to the "rigour" applied to other bidders.
"Superior directives" and adjustments to disguise changes
The report argues that the evaluation of offers was not carried out with "uniformity based on pre-established criteria". The UCO points as the main example to "the reversal of the approach to the evaluation process" and the implementation of "additional adjustments to disguise as much as possible" the modifications introduced during adjudication. Such changes, officers stress, obeyed "directives or recommendations" from "superiors".
The investigators add that the constraints that marked the evaluation of subjective criteria had a "direct effect on the final result of the procurement", and that all of this occurred "with clear intentionality and knowledge by the evaluators". Regarding the Barrabés UTE, the UCO insists that "the preference for its offer" is present in "the entire evaluation process" and that it was "the main beneficiary", beyond having been ranked in first position in the initial phase with "considerable advantage".
Red.es denies abuse of office; ministry questions European Prosecutor's competence
Red.es has sent to Madrid's Economic Crimes Prosecutor's Office a document in which it denies the existence of abuse of office or fraud in this adjudication process. Sources from the Ministry of Digital Transformation, to which the public entity reports, indicated to EFE news agency that the investigated contract was not funded with European funds, therefore they maintain that it is "materially impossible for alleged fraud against the financial interests of the European Union to have occurred".
Source: El País