Four warnings already issued
Ten days this month of July have passed, and authorities’ staff have already issued four notices. The world of maritime services and digital bureaucracy has collided head-on in the offices of the Administration. The company Prácticos de Fuerteventura has experienced first-hand the rigidity of the processes for granting public aid, where an error in a figure—or the absence of a web link—can turn a bid to modernise into an administrative maze. File 32/1/2026-0406085747, concerning business digitalisation, reflects the vast gap between the corporate intention and the extreme accuracy demanded by public officials.
Requirements halt the request
The majorera company’s application, focused on implementing Business Intelligence (BI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, has been stalled by a series of requirements that expose the fragility of paperwork in the age of algorithms. The managing body has issued a set of objections that call into question the internal coherence of the documentation submitted. What the company saw as a commitment to operational efficiency is, to the supervisor, a number puzzle with no resolution. The mismatch between the technical report and the financing plan provided was the first trigger of the dispute.
Financing plan gaps prompt a new annex
The financing plan, a cornerstone of any project funded with public money, showed significant gaps. Technical staff indicate that, while the report requested funding for two clearly differentiated lines of action—BI and AI—the financial plan only covered the forecast expenses for one of them. The numbers have proved an insurmountable obstacle: the amounts detailed in the financing plan do not match either the budget for the BI activity or the offers from the providers attached to the file. This lack of alignment between what is promised and what is budgeted has led the Administration to require a new ‘Anexo I’, a document that must reflect, with surgical precision, the project’s financial reality.
Exact product costs and performance metrics
The level of detail required goes beyond the accounting sphere and into the software architecture. Regarding the requested Business Intelligence solution, the requirement is unequivocal: it is not enough to name the product or the theoretical scope. The Administration demands a URL to public information that details the subscription cost, removing any discretion in evaluating the service. In addition, the project must be broken down into dashboards and key performance indicators (KPIs). The assessors want to know exactly which metrics the tool will produce—from the management of berthing times to the optimisation of human resources—avoiding generic solutions that do not deliver measurable value.
Technical consultancy report required under specific base
Perhaps the most critical point in the file is the demand for a technical consultancy report that strictly meets base 16.11.h. The evaluators have found that the documentation submitted lacks a comparative market analysis. The rule does not only call for implementing a solution; it also requires demonstrating that alternatives were considered and that the selected functionalities respond to a justified technical need, rather than an arbitrary choice. The report must be signed by its author, providing professional accountability that the initial draft appears not to have achieved.
Illustrates tension between administration rules and technical demands
The situation highlights a latent reality in the Canary Islands’ business fabric: the difficulty of adapting traditional administrative structures to the technical requirements of the 21st century. For a pilots company, whose day-to-day operations take place in the complex maritime environment, moving into data management with AI and BI is not just a process improvement; it is a survival need. However, the path is strewn with bureaucracy that prioritises document exhaustiveness over business agility itself.
Errors must be corrected to get the aid back on track
Correcting these errors is now mandatory for Prácticos de Fuerteventura if it wants to get the aid application back on track. The company now faces the task of rebuilding its technical justification—an exercise in drafting and calculation that will test its ability to meet the Administration’s standards. In the meantime, the file rests under the spotlight of the review, serving as a clear example that in the management of public funds, success does not depend solely on the quality of innovation, but on the absolute perfection in how that innovation is translated into writing.
The entry Prácticos de Fuerteventura se lía en Las Palmas con los fondos europeos de digitalización was first published on encanarymaritime.com.
