1.3 Governance and management quality

Functions and manner in which the governing and management bodies are elected (I_02)

Presidency

Its functions and mode of election correspond to the provisions of article 31 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy. The Presidency of the Port Authority is appointed and separated by the competent body of the Autonomous Community, in our case the Governing Council of the Regional Government of Andalusia, at the proposal of the head of the competent Regional Ministry, from among persons of recognised professional competence and suitability. Once the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has been notified of the appointment or removal, it is published in the corresponding Official Gazette and in the Official State Gazette.

By Decree 107/2023, of 9 May, the Governing Council of the Regional Government of Andalusia appointed Mr. Manuel Alberto Santana Martínez as President of the Huelva Port Authority, an appointment that complied with the publicity requirement set out in article 31.1 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy, being published by ORDER TMA/510/2023, of 17 May, in the Official State Gazette No. 123, of 24 May 2023. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Pilar Miranda Plata held the presidency of the Huelva Port Authority, until her resignation, agreed by Decree 81/2023, of 4 April, of the Governing Council of the Regional Government of Andalusia, published by Order TMA/356/2023, of 9 April, in the Official State Gazette No. 87, of 12 April 2023.

The Presidency shall have the following functions (Article 31):

• To permanently represent the Port Authority and its Board of Directors in any acts and contracts and before any natural or legal person, whether public or private, in or out of court, without prejudice to the powers of attorney of the Board of Directors.
• To convene, set the agenda, chair and adjourn the meetings of the Board of Directors, directing its deliberations. The meeting may be convened ex officio or on the proposal of one fifth of the members of the Board of Directors.
• Establish general guidelines for the management of the entity’s services.
• To ensure compliance with the rules applicable to the Port Authority and the agreements adopted by the Board of Directors.
• To present to the Board of Directors the Business Plan, with the entity’s management objectives and criteria for action, as well as the draft budgets, action, investment and financing programme and annual accounts.
• To make decisions on expenditure and, jointly with the Director, to order payments or movements of funds.
• Exercise the special powers delegated to it by the Board of Directors.
• Such other powers as are conferred on it by law.

It is responsible for ensuring compliance with the obligations that the law attributes to the Port Authorities before the State Ports, especially in relation to the provisions and acts whose approval or report corresponds to the State Ports, as well as supplying the latter with all the information of interest for the state port system.

Management

Its functions as a management body and the method of election correspond to the provisions of article 33 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy.

The Director is appointed and removed by an absolute majority of the Board of Directors, at the proposal of the Chairman, from among persons with higher qualifications, recognised professional prestige and at least five years’ experience in port techniques and management.

The Director shall have the following duties (Article 33):

• The ordinary direction and management of the entity and its services, in accordance with the general directives received from the governing bodies of the Port Authority, as well as the submission to the President of the proposal for the organisational structure of the entity.
• The initiation and processing of administrative proceedings, when not expressly attributed to another body, as well as the mandatory issuing of reports on authorisations and concessions, drawing up technical studies and reports on the projects and proposals for activities that serve as a basis for them.
• The preparation and submission to the President for his consideration and decision of the entity’s management objectives and criteria for action, the preliminary draft budgets, action programme, investment, financing and annual accounts, as well as the entity’s staffing needs.

Board of Directors

The election of its members is carried out in accordance with article 30.2 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy.

The members are appointed by the person in charge of the competent Regional Ministry for ports of the Junta de Andalucía at the proposal of the Public Administrations and Organisations represented on the Board of Directors. In the case of the General State Administration, the proposal is made by the President of the State Ports Public Body.

Appointments to the Board of Directors are for a term of four years and are renewable. Their removal shall be agreed by the competent body of the Autonomous Community, at the proposal of the organisations, bodies and entities they represent.

The functions corresponding to the Board of Directors are those established in article 30.5 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy.

Structure of the Board of Directors (I_03)

Following the remodelling of the structure of the Board of Directors ceded by Law 33/2010, of 5 August, the Andalusian Autonomous Community promulgated Decree 2/2011, of 11 January, for the appointment of the members of the governing bodies of the Port Authorities of the ports of general interest located in Andalusia, in compliance with the powers legally established for this purpose, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía on 25 January 2011.

On 5 April 2011, the Board of Directors of the Huelva Port Authority was constituted under the new format conferred by the remodelling of its structure, which entailed a significant reduction in the number of members with respect to the previous structure, maintaining, however, the same scheme of representation to which the distribution of the different memberships existing up to that time obeyed. In this way, the different public administrations, national, regional and local, and the relevant sectors in the port, economic, trade union and business spheres continue to be represented.

The composition of the Board of Directors is as follows:

• Presidency, which corresponds to the President of the Port Authority.
• An ex officio member who is the Harbour Master.
• 15 members:
  • 4 members. General State Administration (including the Harbour Master).
  • 5 members. Autonomous Community (including the Presidency).
  • 4 members. Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation, business and trade union organisations and relevant economic sectors in the port circuit.
  • 1 member. Municipality of Huelva.
  • 1 member. Municipality of Palos de la Frontera.

In addition, the Director and the Secretary sit on the Board, with the right to speak but not to vote. The composition of the Board as at 31 December 2023 is as follows:

Management and support systems (I_04)

The Huelva Port Authority certified its Integrated Quality and Environmental Management System in accordance with ISO 9.001 and 14.001 Standards, with the scope of “General services, as defined in the regulatory framework of the state port system and management of the public port domain” in 2020. Its renewal was certified in June 2022.

With regard to the management of Occupational Risk Prevention, the Huelva Port Authority has contracted an external prevention service for the preventive specialities or disciplines of: safety at work, industrial hygiene, ergonomics and applied psycho-sociology and occupational medicine, including medical health surveillance.

The Huelva Port Authority has had a Railway Safety Management System in place since 2018 as a regulatory obligation, as it is the administrator of railway infrastructures of the General Network (Royal Decree 810/2007, of 22 June, approving the Regulation on safety in the circulation of the General Interest Railway Network, subsequently repealed by Royal Decree 929/2020, of 27 October, on railway operational safety and interoperability).

Steering Committee (I_05)

The Steering Committee is conceived as an instrument to ensure the efficiency of governance and the correct development of the Port Authority’s day-to-day management, especially in matters of importance or which require coordinated interdepartmental treatment.

The Steering Committee is established as a tool to guarantee the efficiency of the government and the adequate development of the daily management of the Port Authority.

It is also responsible for the periodic review of the advances and proposals that arise during the development of the established port planning objectives, agreeing on the adaptations or revisions in those aspects that it considers appropriate in order to achieve the planned objectives.

The Steering Committee is made up of the Chairman and the Director, the heads of the Economic and Financial; Infrastructure; General Secretariat; and Business Development and Commercial areas; as well as the heads of the departments of Operations; Planning, Internal Control and Management Systems; Human Resources and Labour Relations; Port Public Domain; Technology and Information Systems; Communication and External Relations; and Sustainability and Energy Transition. Meetings of the Steering Committee are usually held fortnightly.

Sector technical committees that support the Board (I_06)

In accordance with the provisions of the new Rules of Composition and Operation, approved by the Board of Directors of the Huelva Port Authority, at its meeting held on 31 May 2012 (Official Gazette of the Province of Huelva no. 123, of 27 June 2012), and following the appointment of the members of the Board, the Huelva Port Authority’s Shipping and Port Council has since then assumed its functions as an advisory body to the Presidency of the Port Authority and the Harbour Master’s Office, almost entirely interrupted since the year 2000, when only one of its commissions remained active, the Shipping Commission, which assumed the functions of the Port Services Committee.

The Navigation and Port Council has adjusted its composition following the recommendations of State Ports to ensure updated and appropriate representation at the present time.

The Port Authority’s Shipping and Port Council met for the first time after the remodelling of its structure on 7 November 2012 and at that first meeting it was proposed that the Port Services Committee referred to in art. 124 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy be set up, which from that moment onwards began to assume the functions legally attributed to it in terms of the conditions for the provision of port services. In 2020, the composition of the Navigation and Port Council was adapted to the recommendations made by Puertos del Estado in order to update its representative nature with regard to the current situation, with its new structure having been published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Huelva no. 126 of 6 August 2020. On the other hand, during 2021, the College of Ocean Naval Engineers issued a request to form part of the Navigation and Port Council, considering that there would be no inconvenience a representative of this body joining join the representation of the main clients that operate through the Huelva Port, valuing the link between naval engineering professionals and the port sector.

In this financial year 2023, the Shipping and Port Council met on 29 November; prior to that, on 24 November, the Port Services Committee met.

After the aforementioned adaptations and remodelling, the Shipping and Port Council was constituted according to the following scheme of representation:

In turn, the Port Services Committee was constituted after the aforementioned adaptation with the following scheme of representation: