Barcelona Metropolitan Transport
July-2025
A wide range of irregularities allegedly committed by companies in the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB) group were reported, consisting of a widespread fraudulent use of minor contracting by TMB companies, with improper fractionation of the object of the contracts; irregular extensions of the legal advice and assistance and legal defense contract signed by Ferrocarril Metropolità de Barcelona, SA, and unjustified expenditure for the release of union delegates and for the payment of sanctions for labor breaches of the Law on Infractions and Sanctions in the Social Order. Once the investigative activity has been limited to the facts for which minimal supporting documentation is provided, the information gathered provides evidence of a possible conflict of interest in the award of contracts by a TMB manager to a company owned by a family member, and of an alleged irregular favor for his eventual termination with a substantial compensation, without any accounting or disciplinary liability having been cleared. Given that these facts were the subject of investigation in other actions by the Office, their accumulation is agreed. With regard to the extensions of the contract for legal advisory services by the Management of the tube network, which are also grounds for complaint, no objective element, not even of an indicative nature, could be identified that would allow us to maintain that the aforementioned extensions had been a covert formula for the remuneration of “other concepts” or compensation not included in the contract. Regarding the alleged exclusion of legal services contracts from the regime of Directive 2014/25/EU and the national regulations that transpose it, currently Royal Decree-Law 3/2020, of February 4, it is not considered that the legal solution that was given to a factual situation prior to this one had been adopted in direct contravention of the applicable rules at that time, which is why it is agreed, with regard to these extensions, to archive the proceedings.
