Five travel agencies in the Balearic Islands are being investigated for dividing up a million-dollar contract

2023-08-05 10:27:13

Five Balearic travel agencies are being investigated for the alleged distribution of a millionaire contract signed by the State. This is the so-called Cora contract, which represents a public award of more than 300 million euros to finance the travel of officials, both to national and foreign destinations. The companies investigated are Sekai Corporate Travel, Deneb Travel Management, Avoris Business Corporation, Ecuador Travel and Halcón Travel.

This investigation is in its preliminary phase. He carries it outa National Competition Commission, that investigates whether the directors of these tourist agencies they agreed before presenting the offerta to opt for this public contracting. This State body is looking for possible anti-competitive practices, which would have consisted of the agreement to manipulate and distribute public tenders. These offers would have been submitted through a single companywhich would include the rest of the travel agencies that are domiciled in the Balearic Islands.

The researchers, who still They have not adopted any sanctioning measuresthey asked a court in Palma for an order authorizing the search of the offices. The contentious court responded to the request of the Competition Commission and authorized the search of the headquarters of these companies. The objective of this petition was to seek documentary evidence on alleged meetings between managers of different companies, to agree to apply for this public contract.

tourist companies have tried to declare the invalidity of this registration. The agencies denounced a defenseless situation, among other things because they were unaware of the specific objective of this preliminary investigation. However, in a recent resolution it has been decided to ratify the legality of the registry, among other things, because this measure hasIt had been previously assessed by the judge who authorized entry into the offices.

The information collected in this registry is part of the evidence in a preliminary file, which could end in a sanction proposal. Investigators are trying to identify suspected offenders of these practices that would go against European standards that defend business competition. SIt is intended to identify the managers who would have been involved in this tenderny specify their level of participation in this supposedly illegal distribution of the contract signed with the State.

The purpose of the so-called Cora contract is the provision of travel agency service for state officials. The successful bidder is in charge of the information, advice, reservation, confirmation and issuance of the tickets. In short, it is a contract that centralizes the management of travel and overnight stays made by officials from different ministries, agencies or public entities.

As specified in the bidding conditions, the winner of this public contract has to be in charge of the transportation service for officials. The service would cover regular national and international trips, that are done by plane, train, bus, boat or even helicopter. must also be managed the accommodation service on the trips and the rental, if necessary, of the trips.

In this public tender, whose annual amount is around about 300 million eurosalso obliges the organizers of the trips to be in charge of the management to obtain international visas and provide information on the health requirements in each destination.

The National Competition Commission acted following a complaint from a company in the tourism sector, who communicated his doubts about the rigging of the tender for this important contract, since several managers would have agreed to make a joint offer that would practically ensure the award of this service.

At the moment the investigators are analyzing in depth the documents and evidence that were intervened in the registry in the offices of these companies in Mallorca. At the moment, no decision has been made on the possible sanction proposal, since the investigation is in its preliminary phase.