The Prosecutor's Office files a complaint to investigate the management of PortsIB's buoy fields

PalmaThe Prosecutor's Office of the Balearic Islands has filed a lawsuit following the complaint filed by the Association of Navigators ADN Mediterrani regarding the management of buoy fields by Ports de les Illes Balears (PortsIB). The procedure has already been assigned to the Investigation Section of the Palma Court of Instance, where it has been registered as preliminary proceedings.

According to the same entity, which reported this Thursday, the complaint had been filed on June 11 before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and questioned several actions by PortsIB related to the tender for regulated mooring fields located in areas of the Natura 2000 Network. Now the court will have to investigate whether the reported facts may constitute a crime and if there are any potential criminal responsibilities.

ADN Mediterrani has announced that it will appear in the proceedings to defend the interests of seafarers and provide the documentation it deems necessary during the investigation. The complaint is directed against four officials from PortsIB: the entity's manager, the vice-president, the head of the economic and financial area, and the head of the Operations Service.

A tender for almost six million euros

The reported facts are part of the tender promoted by PortsIB in 2024 to award the management of the ecological mooring fields in the Balearic Islands. The contract, divided into four lots and valued at 5.8 million euros, included both the installation and operation of the buoy fields, as well as environmental monitoring and technical direction of the work.

As the association recalls, the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Appeals had already partially upheld a first appeal filed by ADN Mediterrani against this tender, which forced PortsIB to restart the procedure in February of this year. Subsequently, several appeals were also filed against the award of the different lots, which led to the precautionary suspension of part of the process.

Questioned contracts

The lawsuit focuses on two actions that, according to the association, PortsIB allegedly carried out while the tender remained suspended.

The first is the award of a minor contract for 7,587 euros for the installation of buoy fields in the bay of Fornells and the island of en Colom. ADN Mediterrani maintains that these works were already included in the suspended tender and considers that this contract could constitute a presumed irregular fragmentation to avoid ordinary public procurement procedures. It also highlights that the awarded company was part of one of the temporary companies initially benefiting from the challenged tender.

The second reported action is the extraordinary extension of the previous contract for the management of mooring fields, for an amount exceeding 314,000 euros. The association considers that the legal requirements for applying this exceptional measure were not met, as it argues that the management of buoy fields does not constitute an essential public service and that delays arising from administrative appeals cannot justify this measure.

Possible offenses

In its statement, ADN Mediterrani considers that the facts could constitute alleged crimes of administrative prevarication, disobedience to resolutions of competent bodies, fraud against the Administration, and embezzlement of public funds.

The association maintains that both the minor contract and the extraordinary extension would have allowed the continuation of the execution of services included in a tender that was provisionally suspended, thus emptying the resolutions adopted by the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Appeals of their content.

In any case, it will now be the investigating judge who will have to analyze the submitted documentation and determine if there are sufficient indications to continue the criminal proceedings.

The conflict over the anchoring model

The lawsuit is part of the conflict that ADN Mediterrani has been having for months with the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle and with PortsIB over the new buoy field management model.

The association assures that it shares the need to protect posidonia and prevent anchoring on this marine plant, but argues that this protection is compatible with maintaining free and gratuitous anchoring on sandy bottoms. According to its complaint, the new projects occupy precisely areas that were traditionally used for anchoring at no cost, which it considers restricts access to the coastline and favors a privatized management model of the buoy fields.

ADN Mediterrani assures that negotiations with the Government broke down because they considered that there was no will to modify the current model and reiterates that it will appear in the case to collaborate with Justice and defend, it says, "the legitimate interests of the sailors of the Balearic Islands".