It was one of the large public contracts in the telecommunications sector that were to be carried out this year. And, as happened with the Post Office last year, it has generated significant controversy. The Tax Agency has provisionally suspended the tender for the ‘megacontract’ for the telecommunications service valued at 64 million euros. It does so after Vodafone has filed a special appeal alleging that a technical approach has been included in the conditions of the specifications that could give an advantage to the one currently providing the service. Telefónica was the one who won the contest in 2018.
The appeal was formally announced on May 9, according to the official documentation consulted by The Information. But it was at the end of last week when it was decided to provisionally stop the adjudication procedure, until it is resolved by the administrative court. No deadline has been set for this. But what has been announced to the telecommunications operators that may aspire to achieve the award is that this Monday is maintained as the deadline to submit formal offers.
Vodafone has chosen to demand changes in the tender. In the appeal, he questions the approach of what is known as an integrated offer between the four lots, which are office communications and the data center, unified communications in the cloud, mobile communications and the mail delivery service. Bulk corporate SMS messages. This modality is regulated by the general contract law. Bidders are allowed to submit offers for each lot individually and for all at the same time. The administration will have to individually evaluate each package presented, whether integrated or not, to determine which is the most advantageous offer.
He understands that this formula could benefit Telefónica, which continues to be the service provider since all the lots of the contract were awarded in 2018. In the initial report of the AEAT, this justifies the division into packages with the objective of “favoring ”cer the concurrence of offers” by companies. But the award proposal would be made in favor of those individual lots if the weighted sum of the evaluations is greater than the result of the best integrative offer, “otherwise the award will be proposed for the benefit of the latter.” The technical specifications and specific conditions have not been made public for confidentiality reasons.
Telefónica has been jointly managing all communications from the Tax Agency since 2012, when it was left with the three main lots of the open procedure. In the previous one, which was held in 2006, it also got the green light in three of the four packages – only one was to go to Informática El Corte Inglés. In 2018, a contract that has been extended over the last two years, it was also in charge of providing all services.
This time it is a juicy contract that will also imply an important technological evolution for the Treasury itself. The access speed and flow rates of two data centers will be increased, both in the connection with the offices and with the Internet. Communications for a new center will be included as a third copy of the data, in addition to replacing the entire IP telephony infrastructure and network. The contact center infrastructure for taxpayer service will be modernized and 5,000 new mobile data lines will be contracted to provide coverage for teleworking of officials.
The case of Correos as background
The amount is especially relevant, as it is close to 65 million euros with taxes included for a period of four years. And this makes it one of the most notable of those that will be signed this year and in recent years as far as the telecommunications segment is concerned. The struggle in the area of public administrations has intensified in this market between the different operators, with a residential area especially competitive. In size, it is very similar to the one recently signed by Correos, after a controversy also broke out with another rival.
In that case, the public postal company annulled the ‘in extremis’ procedure last year in a striking decision. Orange had filed an appeal after being expelled from the contest. The agency chose to award Telefónica without having resolved the formal complaint. This was studied and the French telecom company was agreed, so it was decided not to formalize the contract and start it again. Last November, it again awarded the contract to the owner of Movistar with an amount significantly lower than the original of 47 million euros.
This battle now launched by Vodafone is not the only one that has taken place in the last two years. The operator, in the hands of the British fund Zegona at the end of this month of May, appealed the Ministry of Defense’s award to Telefónica Militar for almost 34 million euros for the creation and implementation of the Development, Training and Testing Center for Cyber Defense Operations. with 5G technology. In the administrative process it was lost. And he announced that he would present an appeal before the Contentious Chamber of the National Court. The judges’ ruling is still pending.
