About the outsourcing of services in institutes

In recent years, it has become a norm in institutes to outsource services such as maintenance. For quite some time now, no one from the list of this group of workers has been called in Lanzarote, even though there are people available. We believe that if there were no personnel available, the corresponding employment service should be used before outsourcing.

According to the General Technical Secretariat of Education, as of November 16, 2023, these are the institutes in Lanzarote that have outsourced maintenance and conservation services: IES Agustín Espinosa, IES Arrecife, EOI Arrecife, IES Teguise, CEO Argana, IES Tías, IES Playa Honda, IES Costa Teguise, IES Puerto del Carmen, RE Haría, IES Tinajo, IES Blas Cabrera. In this last institute, we know that there is a public employee, so we do not understand why it appears here. However, the IES En Altavista does not appear in this list, a center that also has the service outsourced according to unofficial information we handle. This makes us think.

Suspicions are heightened because a few weeks ago we asked this institute to confirm in writing whether or not the service was outsourced and, if so, to provide us with the name of the company that provides it, and we have not yet received a response. Similarly, more than a month ago we asked the General Technical Secretariat of Education to provide us with the name of the companies that provide maintenance services in the aforementioned centers, and we are waiting for a response.

What need does the Administration have to resort to this? Is it proceeding in accordance with current regulations regarding the awarding of these services, or is it directly resorting to the friend, cousin, or brother-in-law? We are talking about public money. We suspect that there is a lack of transparency in many of these awards that should be investigated by whoever is responsible. Lack of transparency, corruption, and prevarication often go hand in hand. We could be facing a presumed corruption in the procedure of outsourcing services. We hope we are wrong in our suspicions and it is not so.

It is unacceptable that, with people on the corresponding lists, the members of those lists are not used. What is hidden here? Privatization, moreover, is expensive, since, apart from being unnecessary, in many cases it is the center itself that provides the means and the company saves money.

Jesús Manuel Díaz Lorente. Delegate of CSIF Canarias

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