The Orihuela Court of Instruction No. 3 has started preliminary proceedings in the “Roads Case” for an alleged crime of administrative malfeasance. This happened after José Francisco Aix, the spokesperson for Ciudadanos (Citizens), and Ángel Noguera, the former Ciudadanos councillor for Infrastructure, filed a complaint. The probe also includes former PP (People’s Party) councillors Emilio Bascuñana, Rafael Almagro, Mariola Rocamora, Sabina Galindo, and Víctor Valverde, who were on the Local Governing Board from 2019 to 2023. Valverde is still a councillor in the PP-Vox coalition administration. Sabina Galindo was named Regional Secretary for the Environment just over a week ago.
The court order from December 15th expands the investigation, which was previously known as the “imputados” (defendants), to include Antonio Gracia, the municipal technician in charge of the contract; Construcciones Zaplana Caselles SLU, the winning bidder; and its administrator, José Julián Zaplana; as well as Mónica Pastor, the current Councillor for Contracting, for extending the contract into 2024 even though breaches were found. The court has asked the City Council to send over the contract file and the 2018 Budget Implementation Guidelines, which are still in existence in 2020, so that it can check payment controls and previous technical audits.
Ciudadanos says that the road maintenance contract for Orihuela Costa, which was given to Construcciones Zaplana Caselles SL in 2020, was not carried out since the company did not provide the specified fixed infrastructure, such as a warehouse, offices, and room for machinery. The Local Governing Board approved the invoices every month, even though they were warned not to. They did not lower the sums or end the arrangement. A decision from the Elche Administrative Court in June already found multiple violations that, according to the order, should have resulted to the service being cancelled.
The lawsuit also involves the extension that Mónica Pastor, the Councillor for Contracting, signed in March 2024, when a liquidation and probable reimbursement file was already open. Cs thinks this file is frozen.
People have criticised Vox, the PP’s partner in the current government, for being “complacent.” The party, which runs the Coastal Department with Manuel Mestre, hasn’t said anything publicly about an issue that concerns its partner. At the same time, Valverde, who is now in charge of Infrastructure, has kept approving invoice payments after the government changed in 2023. The opposition says he has also avoided making it clear in plenary session that the building mentioned in the contract does not exist.
The court asked for documents to check if the rules for municipal budgets were followed, which provide that payment must be approved by both technical and political means. Cs says that the earlier technician didn’t disclose the problems, but other technicians did write them down, and the courts agreed with these findings.
The start of the “Viales case” puts it entirely in the hands of the courts and opens up a political front that Ciudadanos says was key in breaking up the previous coalition government with the PP.
Author: Derek Appleton
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