Mallorca buoy fields: court probes four PortsIB officials

Mallorca’s buoy fields from last summer are at the centre of a court investigation in Palma, Mallorca: four PortsIB officials face allegations that new moorings went in while a tender was suspended. Prosecutors brought a case in July after a complaint from the Mediterranean Sailors’ Association, known as ADN Mediterráneo. The four have told the court that PortsIB acted within the law.

The tender at the centre of the case

The investigation covers PortsIB manager Francisco José Villalonga, director general of ports Antoni Mercant and two technical staff. ADN Mediterráneo and other groups have repeatedly challenged a tender worth more than €5.8 million for ecological buoy fields.

The association says PortsIB kept the tender process moving, then changed and extended it, even though the Central Administrative Tribunal for Contractual Appeals had suspended it. It also alleges that PortsIB awarded a smaller contract to install buoy fields in the bay of Fornells and at Illa d’en Colom. Those sites were already covered by the suspended tender, the group says. It argues that splitting the work into a smaller contract may have bypassed normal public procurement rules.

PortsIB points to plant protection

PortsIB says the buoy fields were needed to protect posidonia, a marine plant. ADN Mediterráneo counters that anchoring on the plant is already banned and that the buoy fields are installed only between June and September. The group believes the move was driven by revenue rather than the public interest.

The court has opened preliminary proceedings and called the four officials to give evidence. Their account that the work was lawful was reported by Diario de Mallorca and confirmed to Europa Press by sources involved in the case. The allegations remain under investigation.

Topics: Court cases · Sea & coast · Palma

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com