Mazón will audit the public sector after accusing the left-wing Generalitat of “plugs and lack of control”

The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, of the PP, has presented an avalanche of figures and data to criticize the “waste, lack of control and occultism” of the previous left-wing autonomous government, called Botànic and formed by the PSPV-PSOE, Compromís and Podem, as he reiterated this Tuesday in the Gothic patio of the Palau de la Generalitat. With constant allusions to reports from the Intervention and the Audit Office and with the staging of extraordinary occasions, Mazón has stated before the media that in the last four years the Botànic “awarded directly, by hand, 253,122 contracts for an amount of 713 million euros” and in 2021 there were more than “4,000 hiring of personnel that were not authorized by the General Directorate of Budgets.” The workforce in the public sector increased by 35% between 2015 and 2023 and spending on personnel in public companies skyrocketed by 47%, from 400 million to 600 million.

For all these reasons, the Valencian president, who governs in coalition with Vox, has announced the launch of two audits: a general “forensic” one – “a technical procedure to detect in detail possible cases of fraud and uncontrolled spending”, he has explained – of the public sector to know “where each euro has gone”, and an operational audit. He has also announced that he will eliminate six “ghost companies” with duplicate functions that had never actually been operational, as he has stated. He was referring to the following agencies: Valencian Energy, for Digitalization and Cybersecurity, Valencian Food Information and Control, Valencian Waste and Circular Economy, Valencian Climate Change and the Valencian School of Public Administration. The “non-political” staff assigned to these agencies is “very small” and will be incorporated into the corresponding general directorates.

The semantic field of his intervention included terms and expressions such as “irregularities”, “transfers from no one knows to whom and from no one knows what”, “bottomless pit”, “open bar”, “massive plugs”, “hire by hand”. “, “bad spending” or “lack of control.” However, Mazón will not present the evidence presented before a court at least until the audit is concluded. Then the administrative and even criminal responsibilities that may have occurred will be demanded, “wherever necessary.” “If the legal services of the Generalitat see any type of irresponsibility, we will logically take it to court,” he reiterated.

The president of the Consell has responded to the media that the 554 million in expenses acquired without processing a contract file and 159 million in minor contracts that add up to the 713 million cited are not explained by the emergency hiring of the coronavirus pandemic, as they have pointed out. shortly after the press conference, sources from the previous Government. He has also responded that he did not have “detailed” the breakdown of the 4,000 hiring of workers that he has highlighted, although he has maintained that they do not belong to the health or educational field. He has stressed that, for example, the Valencian Society for Comprehensive Management of Emergency Services (SGISE), which includes forest firefighters, under the jurisdiction of former counselor Gabriela Bravo, went from 500 to 1,000 workers.

Mazón has concluded that the reports of the Comptes Sindicatura and the Intervention of the Generalitat show that “the government of PSPV, Compromís and Podemos dedicated itself to spending without control on aspects of dubious legality.” In figures, he has indicated that only four of the 54 public sector entities have received a positive assessment in these reports, meaning that “92% do not carry out public procurement procedures in accordance with the law.”

For all this, he requested an urgent report from the General Directorate of the Public Sector, a report that reveals that there are six entities created by the Botànic with “a clear conflict of duplicity that would give rise to more directors or managers hand-picked to carry out the same task” and which are the ones that will be eliminated.

The “political godfather” on the bench

The response of the socialists has been almost immediate. The PSPV spokesperson in Les Corts, José Muñoz, has assured that “all Valencians” know “the Alí Baba Cave which was the public sector with the PP in the Generalitat”, which “has deserved prison sentences from those responsible” and will now put Eduardo Zaplana, the “political godfather” of the current president, Carlos Mazón, on trial. The start of the trial against Zaplana and another former Valencian president of the PP, José Luis Olivas, in addition to 13 people from the former's circle of trust, is scheduled to begin on February 1.

Zaplana is accused of the crimes of money laundering, bribery, falsification of commercial documents and administrative prevarication. Muñoz has also indicated that former president Francisco Camps and several former councilors “are awaiting sentencing for the Generalitat's looting of the Gürtel plot” and has accused Mazón of “blatantly lying”, since in his opinion “the previous management would not have been that bad.” when the person responsible for the Public Sector with the Consell del Botànic has kept in office.” Muñoz refers to María José Mira, current regional secretary of Economics of the Generalitat and to whom the general direction of European Funds and Public Sector depends. Mazó has kept her in his Government although she had been the regional secretary of Economic Model and Financing and Commissioner of the Presidency of the Generalitat for the Coordination of Supplies of the Generalitat in the face of the Covid-19 infection with the previous left-wing Consell. .

The socialist parliamentary spokesperson has pointed out that “Mazón's major reform of the public sector translates into eliminating six inactive entities with a total saving of zero euros” and has accused him of “wanting to create a smoke screen in the face of the imminent sentences for leaders of the Popular Party”.