06/05/2020 17:30 – Updated: 06/05/2020 17:31
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Hortensia has had to go back to her bookstore. The one who rode 33 years ago in the Madrid municipality of Torrejón de Ardoz and that she left her son Valentin when he retired. The bookstore is so well known that, despite the fact that the bookstore is called Abascal, everyone knows it as Hortensia bookstore. The blame for this return, at 73, is not entirely due to the coronavirus, which forced the closure of these premises for three months and which has already dealt a severe blow to the business, but rather another obstacle with an ugly name: the Framework Agreement of the Plan Accede for the acquisition of school books in the Community of Madrid. Her son Valentín García, spokesperson for the Association of Small Bookstores in Madrid, expresses this clearly to El Confidencial: “If we already thought with the pandemic that 40-50% of Madrid’s small bookstores could close, they can now reach 90%” .
Part by part. East Plan Access It was approved by the Community of Madrid in December 2018, endowing itself with 200 million euros, as announced at the time, although it has not started operating until this 2019/2020 academic year. The Plan consists of the centers create a book bank with which families deliver. To enter they always have to deliver a course in perfect condition paid for by them. The schools buy each year – after billing the Community – the books of 1st and 2nd grade of primary, because the children write in them and cannot be reused, and two courses of the rest of the compulsory stage. This year they buy 3rd of primary and 1st of ESO. What is the problem with this system? According to small bookstores, the conditions imposed on them for the tender and to be able to sell to schools they are draconian and they don’t favor them.
With this Access Plan together with the pandemic they can close up to 90% of the small bookstores in Madrid
“For starters, one of the big problems with this system is that there can only be one single supplier per school,” says Valentín, with which many bookstores are left out as suppliers. On the other hand, the agreement requires that the books must be delivered lined and labeled with stickers from the Access program. “And in that regard, I cannot compete with a company that has a lot of employees and can do that service much cheaper than me,” adds the bookseller. Another requirement is that in order to present yourself to each lot -the parcels that the Community of the entire territory has made for the sale of school books- it is necessary to have one person in the bookstore and another in customer service at least throughout the school year. That is to say, two people en businesses that are often so small that they are one-person. This requirement is that he made Hortensia, now retired, return to her bookstore: “It is the only way that I had to be able to present myself to the tender, that my mother continue to be the owner of the bookstore and I was the customer service person” , says Valentin.
92 thousand bookstores
His bookstore has been awarded for this course along with 170 others, although of these only 92 they are really considered bookstores. “The rest are publishers that can directly sell books, distributors, or even Carrefour, which has been presented to all the lots in the community because they can have staff; then there are internet sales companies that we do not know in the sector, they are companies that have only entered this contest, ”says Valentín. In reality, despite the fact that they find large companies and even publishers among which they were awarded the contract to sell books, the war does not go that far: “In this we are all united, from CEGAL to ANELE and FANDE, the associations of publishers of text and distributors because they also know that without the small bookstores, the sales of books are going to fall a lot ”, summarizes the bookseller. In total there are about 1000 bookstores in the Madrid community, so only 10% of the companies have been the beneficiaries.
In total there are about 1000 bookstores in the Madrid community, so only 10% of the companies have been the beneficiaries.
Therefore, what everyone wants is for this framework agreement to be modified and for the Community to commit to the check-book, which is the system that works in almost all autonomies and which was even in force in Madrid during the years of the Esperanza Aguirre government. “The only community that implemented this system of the Accede plan was Murcia and of the 400 bookstores that existed, in the first year they closed 150. Murcia rectified and now they work with the book check,” says Valentín. The check-book It is a system through which parents are given a document, usually a printed sheet with the student’s information and the books they have to acquire, the family goes to the bookstore, shopping center or wherever they want to pick up the books, and He delivers that document, then the bookstore issues an invoice and attaches the supporting documents so that the administration, the community of Madrid, will pay him the amount of the books delivered. “Really the only difference in management is that instead of centralizing everything in the centers, families and allow them to keep going to bookstores“says Valentin.
In addition, the booksellers know that this year is particularly difficult, since it has not been able to sell either neither Book Day nor Book Fair from El Retiro. The big trick was September with the textbooks. “With the money we got in September, we put up with the times when books are not sold. But this year that we have been closed due to the pandemic, there is no more treasury to endure, “admits Valentin.
The Ombudsman agrees
Throughout this course, the booksellers have had several conversations with the Ministry of Education directed by Enrique Ossorio (PP). Various questions have also been asked from the Socialist Party. They have even addressed the Ombudsman, Francisco Fernández Marugán, who has given them the reason and, although it is not binding, has urged the council to modify this framework agreement because it discriminates against these small businesses.
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The Confidential has also asked the Ministry for this matter, which has stated that “it is not possible to suspend this Framework Agreement for the 2020/21 course due to time, since it is in force and for its suspension an agreement of resignation of all bidders would be necessary, as well as the amendment of law 7/2017 of free textbooks and Curricular material from the Community of Madrid. It is completely impossible to carry out all these procedures before the start of the next school year. ” In addition, they maintain that it was signed with 183 awardees and entered into force on November 1, 2019, so “it has binding force between the signatory parties and the period of validity would be until April 30, 2023.” However, they do open the door to a possible modification: “Next year we will duly assess both the operation of the Framework Agreement and the possible modification of the law in order to explore other options with enough time to make a final decision.”
Ministry of Education: “It is not possible to suspend this Framework Agreement for the 2020/21 academic year due to time”
For Valentín García, as for the rest of the books, however, next year it would be too late. “We cannot be next year without selling any book,” he warns. Furthermore, regarding the solution provided by the community, he adds: “I cannot ask my associates to resign because that would be illegal, since it would be an agreement between the winners to overturn a public contract and that’s illegal and the community could sanction us. “
At the moment there are no more meetings with the counseling in a near date. The bookseller also wonders how the Accede Plan will be carried out this year. “The schools should be buying the books now, but since they have not been open… There is still no list of the students who are going to sign up for the Accede plan because the children have not yet enrolled. Plus,how are the books going to be collected this year who have been at home this course with the coronavirus? There are no protocols… ”.
For all this, Hortensia has had to return to her bookstore. And they hope that the community rectify. For the good of the thousand small bookstores in the region. “With the system of purchasing by the centers, not only have they excluded the bookstores that have not tendered to sell textbooks, but also the families collect the books at school directly and do not visit bookstores on the way back to school, which also implies sales and a “tradition” of visiting us that is lost “, ditch Valentin.
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