The presidency of the Port Authority of Las Palmas has contracted for 14,600 euros net for advisory services for the European project Sotavento. The award has gone to consultant Iñigo Gracia, who previously held a technical position within the Foundation of the Ports of Las Palmas, following a standard processing procedure and manual submission in which two bidders competed. The other bidder is not public. This employee is the one who reported the Foundation of the Ports of Las Palmas and is now an external provider for the Port Authority of Las Palmas.
According to sources familiar with Gracia’s employment at the Foundation of the Ports of Las Palmas, when the departure of former manager Sergio Galván became public after the revelation of a supposed conflict of interest, Gracia, who was the technician responsible for implementing European projects, left the entity amidst serious disagreements with the then head of the Unipersonal Assistance Body of the entity, which is legally the title of the manager and who was dismissed by the president of the Foundation of the Ports of Las Palmas and the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Beatriz Calzada. The contract is valid until September 2026. Although it is consultancy for a EU project, in the capital ‘there is no funding from EU resources’, according to official sources. In his LinkedIn profile, he indicates that he is an employee of the Foundation of the Ports of Las Palmas.
What does he advise on?
It is for the Sotavento program, linked to INTERREG VI D Madeira-Azores-Canarias (MAC) 2021-2027 and which has a total budget in the region of 2,450,856 euros, co-financed at 85% by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The initiative is designed to promote the blue economy and aims to transform port facilities into guarantors of marine sustainability and technological innovation. The function of the awardee will consist of providing technical support to a structure that requires precise justification of each expense item before the audits of the European Union, relieving the bureaucratic burden on the Foundation’s own teams.
July 2028
The project’s operation stands out for its cross-border dimension, connecting partners from the Canary Islands, Madeira, Cape Verde, Senegal, and Mauritania. While the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife serves as the lead and project leader responsible for technical centralization, the Port Authority of Las Palmas must coordinate local actions with international entities such as the Zone Franche of Nouadhibou or the port of Nuadibú. The on-the-ground work includes oversight of labor training programs, technological camps, and blue business incubators, with an execution horizon set until July 2028.
A unique technical aspect of this award is its internal budgetary fit. Although the global actions of Sotavento are funded by community financing, this specific minor contract for assistance is registered on the State Contracting Platform under the condition of ‘no funding from EU resources’. This implies that the Port Authority of Las Palmas assumes the amount of 14,600 euros from its own ordinary resources, a common accounting practice to streamline the hiring of external consultancy services necessary to meet the objectives and follow-up reports of the Atlantic consortium.
