Marbella’s Councilor for Festivals Verbally Contracts Halloween Attractions
During her intervention in the last full council meeting, Yolanda Marín, the Councilor for Festivals of the Marbella City Council, verbally contracted several attractions for Halloween in 2023. Despite Halloween always falling on the same date, October 31, the tenders were not carried out in time. This was a common practice in the Sports area under Manuel Cardeña.
Approval of Pending Invoices
The council meeting last Monday approved the payment of three invoices, totaling nearly 40,500 euros, which were pending for some of the attractions from last year’s Halloween festivities. The contracts had been made irregularly, hence the delay in payment. An extrajudicial credit recognition was necessary after the municipal auditor lifted the objection he had placed.
Verbal Contracting: A Prohibited Practice
The municipal official believes that these activities were contracted verbally, a practice prohibited by current legislation. He believes that the process “should have started at the appropriate time and with sufficient notice”. However, this was not done, and there was not enough time to make the contracts, so the attractions were set up without any documentary support.
Repetition of Irregular Practices
It seems that the Festivals Department, led by Yolanda Marín since last summer, has adopted the practices that were already in place in the Sports Department during Manuel Cardeña’s tenure. At that time, it was common to verbally contract sports events, which were then paid for months later, after going through the council meeting.
Legal Reports Highlight Irregularities
The legal reports accompanying the file accessed by Marbella24horas indicate that “situations like these must be avoided at all costs”. Despite the repetition of this message, the government team’s way of proceeding has not changed, and the same situation has occurred again with the Halloween celebration.
Verbal Contracts and Irregularities
The verbal contracts were for two lots of attractions for Marbella (17,857.27 euros + 15,500.10 euros) and one for San Pedro Alcántara (7,046.53 euros). In total, 40,403.90 euros were contracted “irregularly”, according to the reports, without fiscal control and verbally.
Explanation from Councilor Yolanda Marín
During the council meeting, Councilor Yolanda Marín gave a somewhat gilista explanation to this whole issue. “Only the formalization of the award was pending, a formality, and the question is, can we cancel a beloved and desired party over a formality?” she said.
Opposition Criticizes Irregularities
From the PSOE, Councilor José Ignacio Macías pointed out that “these are three contracts formalized verbally haphazardly and as if we were in a flea market”. “I doubt that the best provider has been chosen and with the most adjusted budget, that’s what public contracting is for, it’s not a formality, it’s a guarantee,” he added. Daniel Mahíquez (OSP) reminded that these types of files “are repeated because another one from Christmas already came” and asked the PP to “review their way of managing, because something is not working”. “We don’t want Festivals to be the Sports delegation of the previous mandate,” he added. On behalf of Vox, Eugenio Moltó explained that “it’s not a formality, a verbal contract has been made, the nullity exists, another thing is that they can lift the objection”.
