After analysing the procedures for awarding smaller contracts carried out by Osakidetza in 2022, the LAB union concludes that they have awarded EUR 8 million through the “illegal procurement procedure”. The LAB General Coordinator, Garbiñe Aranburu, has pointed out that “generalized practice” has detected cases in the OSIs of Araba, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, highlighting that the OSIs are the “most splash”, the OSI Araba and the Cruces Hospital. In total, 381 fraudulently divided minor contracts have been found.

Fragmentation as a way to avoid public control

The public procurement law states that the division of works contracts is not legal, and in the cases analyzed by LAB, there are no economic, organizational or technical reasons for their division: “The only reason is to reward some companies; moreover, this way of doing is to avoid public control, is opaque and avoids the necessary conditions of publicity in the award of this type of work.” Aranburu, head of the union, criticises that the situation is really “serious”.

According to the union, what has happened is not a void in management, but a political decision, and has strongly criticized “the neoliberal and clientele model of the PNV”. He stresses that it is neoliberal because it aims to “weaken the public health system” and “strengthen the private”. And, on the contrary, based on clientele, “because party companies are rewarded”.

Aranburu targets lehendakari Urkullu and health advisor Sagardui: “They have run out of time. In vain they will try to hold workers and trade unions accountable for what is happening to a strategy of wear and tear.”