Foreign Affairs seeks a company for the diplomatic pouch service for the next two years

In addition to documents and official correspondence, votes abroad are sent this way

MADRID, 7 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation is looking for a company to take over the diplomatic bag service through which official documents are sent and received to embassies around the world for the next two years for an estimated amount of about 5 million of euros.

Specifically, it seeks to award the "collection, transport, billing and door-to-door delivery service of shipments of documentation and official material from" both Foreign Affairs and other ministries and official organizations sent as diplomatic pouch to embassies, permanent representations, delegations, ministries and consular offices abroad, and vice versa.

The diplomatic bag, explains Foreign Affairs in the supporting report to which Europa Press has had access, is an "exclusive and essential service" of this department and that allows guaranteeing "the inviolability of correspondence between the Central State Administration and its representations in the outside".

Pursuant to Article 27 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the official correspondence of diplomatic legations "is inviolable" and therefore "the diplomatic bag may not be opened or retained", as long as it is duly identified and accredited.

Currently, the service is being carried out by DHL Express, which was awarded in 2021 for an amount of about 4.2 million, but since the contract expires on July 12, Foreign Affairs has decided to urgently process the new one. The base budget for the tender has been set at 3,758,230 euros while the estimated value of the contract for two years, and extendable for only one more, is estimated at 5,181,023.19 euros.

As explained in the supporting report, it is a co-financed contract, in which the Foreign Ministry corresponds to the bulk of the financing, 73.76%, and in which other departments such as the Ministry of Defense, Inclusion, Security Social and Migrations and Labor, as well as the AECID, the Instituto Cervantes, the ICEX or the INSS.

The winning company will be in charge of the ordinary bag from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is sent periodically and regularly to the Spanish diplomatic legations, as well as large parcels of more than 1 kilo sent by other departments without the shipment being regular, as well as well as shipments of this type that originate in the opposite direction.

Likewise, it will also take charge of the transfer to Spain of the vote abroad, in what is considered extraordinary services. The transport of these votes, both for national and regional elections, will be carried out in accordance with the deadlines set by the Central Electoral Board "in order to allow them to arrive on time for the scrutiny," explains the contract's technical specifications.

In this sense, the winning company must provide "a schedule" with all the representations and the transit times between them and the Ministry of the bags with the votes and ensure the "arrival in Madrid within the maximum number of bags possible ". Likewise, you will have to commit to delivering them "during the election weekend" if required.

The diplomatic bag will be collected from Monday to Friday at the historic Foreign Office headquarters in the Palacio de Santa Cruz and transferred and stored in the cargo terminal of the Barajas airport in Madrid, prior to its shipment to the destination country. The shipment will be made primarily by plane -with the possibility of doing so by boat or by land in an exceptional way- and the winning company will be in charge of the delivery at the destination.

In the same way, a similar procedure will be followed with the diplomatic bag from the Spanish representations and offices abroad sent to Foreign Affairs. Its collection will be done from Monday to Friday except in the case of exceptional services for the collection and transfer of votes, which could be done on holidays and weekends if necessary. These last services will be budgeted and invoiced independently.

On the other hand, the contract requires "absolute confidentiality and reservation about the facilities, as well as about any data that may be known during the fulfillment of the contract." In this sense, all the information and data provided to the contractor and his personal may not be "subject, in whole or in part, to publication, copying, use, assignment or loans to third parties".

Likewise, it must "faithfully and carefully guard the information, documentation, or data" that can be accessed during the process and undertake that these do not reach "in any case the power of third parties."

Throughout the process, the winning company will be responsible for the security of the diplomatic bag, so it will be "obliged to adopt the highest security measures both in the means of transport used and in the personnel designated to carry out these functions. ".

For this, it is requested that the land transfer be made in vans that prevent access to outsiders and that they communicate the identification data of those who are in charge of handling the diplomatic bag throughout the process.