The Departamento de Interior in Barcelona, Spain has awarded a EUR 5.6m contract for translation and interpretation services for the police force in Catalonia.
The contract is divided into six lots based on the six regions established by the police department: Gerona; Ponent, Pirineu Occidental; Metropolitana Nord; Metropolitana Barcelona; Camp de Tarragona i Terres de l’Ebre; Metropolitana Sud; and the Central Units.
The Madrid-based language service provider (LSP) SeproTec Multilingual Solutions (SeproTec) won the contract for all six lots in a competitive bidding.
Juan Julián León, CEO of SeproTec, told Slator that the language and interpretation services the company will provide will be the same in all lots — consecutive interpretation and written translation of oral declarations.
Cover the Gaps
“This is expected to cover the gaps in services in areas where the General Police Directorate (Direccio General de la Policia) does not have enough staff or resources to meet translation and interpretation needs,” he said.
SeproTec has been providing services to public institutions such as document translation, transcription, simultaneous and consecutive interpreting, telephone interpreting, and sign language since it was founded in 1989.
In June 2016, the company acquired Polish LSP Lidolang to get a base in Krakow. The production hub in Poland’s second largest city is the company’s fourth after Madrid, Barcelona, and Austin (in the US). SeproTec now has presence in 11 countries with over 400 employees.
Under Spain’s judicial code, translation or interpretation of legal actions must be provided to detainees who do not understand Spanish or any of the co-official languages in the country’s autonomous regions.
The tender specifies that the services are for the interpretation of oral statements of persons and translation of written documents in non-official languages in Catalonia.
Tourist Magnet
The official languages in Catalonia are Spanish, Catalonian, and Aranese. León said the specifications for this contract is to establish a minimum number of interpreters for Arabic, Romanian, French, Chinese, German, Urdu, Russian, Portuguese, Berber, Edo, Georgian, Igbo, Polish, Mandinka, Bulgarian, Albanian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Tagalog, Punjabi, and Bengali.
León said the new service will benefit mainly international tourists, immigrants and the rest of the Spanish citizens who do not speak the co-official languages, or any individual who, by legal accusation, needs to obtain the services rendered by the Mossos d’Esquadra (the Police Force of Catalonia).
“The linguistic policies of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Comunidad Autónoma de Catalunya) itself, with three co-official languages and a large number of foreign visitors, make the rendering of translation and interpreting services necessary in almost all of the public institutions of the region,” he explained.
He added that the region has 1.1 million registered foreigners of 55 different nationalities, holding a residency permit, and there is also an influx of illegal immigration which travels through the region.
“Catalonia is also one of the most active Spanish regions in regard to welcoming both international as well as national tourists. In 2016, close to 17.3 million tourists of all nationalities (approximately 23% of the total number of tourists visiting our country) paid a visit to our autonomous community,” he shared.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Krakow was the capital of Poland. Warsaw is.
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