The Cabildo of Lanzarote has once again put out to public tender the travel agency services it contracts, a year after having annulled the previous tender due to errors in the specifications, alleging that some of the "needs" that it claimed needed to be covered had not been contemplated.
It was in November 2016 when the Cabildo put these services out to tender, after Podemos denounced that invoices had been paid to travel agency companies with Intervention objections, because they had been processed "without the appropriate contracting files". Three companies then submitted bids, none of which were from Lanzarote. However, after receiving the offers from Turismatsol, Viajes el Corte Inglés and The Travel Brand, the Cabildo ended up interrupting the tender.
According to a resolution from the institution in November 2017, Turistmatsol was the only company that complied with the technical specification sheet, but even so, the Cabildo decided to withdraw from the procedure. "It covers the needs of the Island Agricultural Service, but not those of Culture or the Department of Sports, since these departments need to cover events and make contracts for very specific services, which were not contemplated in the Technical Specification Sheet," it was then alleged from the institution, which ended up withdrawing from the tender to redo the specifications.
A higher tender budget
Now, a year after that tender was interrupted and invoices with Intervention objections have continued to be paid, the Cabildo has once again put the administration's travel agency services out to public tender and has also done so with a tender budget much higher than the first time. In the first tender it was 350,000 euros, while now it amounts to 560,000, although before it contemplated four lots and now there are six. The duration of the contracts will be two years, and may be extended for two more years from the end of the initial period set.
The Cabildo explains that the awarding of the services will be carried out through a framework agreement for travel agency services, through public tender and open procedure to select the companies that may carry out the service for the different departments of the Institution, in order to manage official trips and, specifically, the technical assistance service in the organization of travel, transportation and accommodation of public officials and administration personnel or personnel related to their own activities, essential for the fulfillment of the powers of the different management centers of the Corporation.
The main task of the service will be the management of the reservation, issuance, modification, cancellation and delivery of air, land and sea transport tickets, accommodation vouchers and vehicle rental. They will also provide livestock transfer services between islands and the qualified personnel that may be needed.
Those interested in participating in this call, published on the Lanzarote Cabildo's tender portal and in the Official Journal of the European Union, will have until October 18 to submit their offers, in accordance with the technical and administrative specifications and documentation that can also be downloaded from the Lanzarote Cabildo's contracting platform.
