The spokesman for the Popular Municipal Group in the Albacete City Council, Manuel Serrano, has denounced that the Consistory "paid for surgical masks almost double the average price of other municipalities in Spain", since "the Albacete Consistory during the first weeks in which the state of alarm was declared as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in our country, made numerous contracts through the emergency procedure without any type of tender or advertising and through minor contracts. These contracts were mainly aimed at the acquisition of medical supplies and involved a total cost of close to two million euros, he has specified.
Manuel Serrano has demanded from the mayor, Emilio Sáez, and the deputy mayor, Vicente Casañ, "clarity and speed in an explanation that is forceful and convincing, because waste has taken over this City Council and the people of Albacete do not have to endure it for a day more", as reported by the PP in a press release
Serrano has detailed how the Municipal Popular Group has carried out a study of both surgical and FPP2 or KN95 masks acquired by the Albacete City Council and the price paid for them compared to other municipalities in Spain.
This study, which is based on the data collected by the Court of Auditors, has been carried out "as a result of the information that appears continuously in the media that refer to irregularities and cost overruns in the purchase of this material by other public administrations, these facts that in many cases are giving rise to the opening of investigative proceedings by the Prosecutor's Office ".
Thus, between the months of March and June 2020, the City Council made purchases of masks worth 551,000 euros, 245,000 corresponding to the purchase of surgical masks and just over 306,000 to the purchase of FPP2 or NK95 type masks, the 'popular' have commented.
Manuel Serrano has specified that the Albacete City Council has paid for this type of mask almost double the average price of other municipalities since, in the months of March, April and May, the price of purchases of surgical masks acquired by the City Council of Albacete ranges between 0.59 euros paid in May 2019 and the maximum of 1.85 euros in the month of April in a purchase of 50,000 and another of 7,000 units, this price being "much higher than the prices more high fees paid by the municipalities studied by the Court of Auditors".
The 'popular' spokesman has given the example that "the Seville City Council paid the highest price for a surgical mask, 1.15 euros per unit, in a contract for the acquisition of 50,000 masks on April 15, 2020, while the City Council Albacete came to pay 1.85 euros per unit for a contract also for 50,000 masks made on the same date, that is, a premium of 61 percent was paid ». "If we make this comparison with those made by the Zaragoza City Council also in April, when it paid 0.43 euros and 0.36 euros, we have a 330 percent surcharge as a result," he added.
Serrano has assured that "it is striking that the supplier to whom the Albacete council commissioned is a company with registered office in Seville, without any prior experience in the supply of medical supplies, since its corporate purpose is the trade in fuels, fuels, fuels, lubricants and any other similar, intended for the automotive industry, industry, home, commerce and business in general and in its broadest sense, as well as training, development of educational campuses and tourism, consultancy projects and strategic advice».
