Thursday, April 20, 2023, 5:03 p.m.
This Thursday Ciudadanos went out for the first time to discuss the issue that has marked a ‘horribilis’ week within the orange formation. The judicial summons of the prosecutor Felipe Briones to the exedil of Infrastructures opened the gap that could have catapulted the municipal government team to its rupture. But today, the deputy mayor, José Aix, cleared up doubts while expressing his total confidence in his “companion” and “friend” Ángel Noguera, who denounced being immersed in a “hunt and capture” orchestrated in electoral terms by the PP.
The orange formation, thus, will not claim the return of the detracted area and that corresponds to it according to the pact it signed with the PSOE after the motion of censure to focus on municipal day-to-day life and the imminent campaign. “We cannot agree with this decision, but we are in an area very close to the elections and we have to think about the most important thing at this time, which is not to enter into that dynamic, but to continue working and contributing,” justified José Aix. .
The deputy mayor acknowledged that, despite the fact that the personal decision of the mayoress, Carolina Gracia, has caused them “regret and discomfort”, “we are not going to go into that anymore precisely because what has distinguished the relationship between PSOE and Ciudadanos, and thus It will continue to be until the new corporation takes possession, it is communication, dialogue and discrepancy always for the benefit of Orihuela ».
For the Ciudadanos leader, and contrary to the criteria applied by the mayoress, the fine line that would mark the sudden departure of the Noguera government would be the opening of an oral trial. “If an oral trial had been opened, Mr. Noguera would be in his house and he knows it.” Thus, the vice mayor expressed his tranquility at the start of this procedure. «We think that the summons of June 15 is a way that will allow him to explain himself naturally and with arguments. We hope that the situation can be redirected and that this electoral effervescence in which we all move allows us to continue focused on work, “he wished.
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Regarding the criticism of the opposition, José Aix acknowledged that Ángel Noguera “continues to be a member of this government”, since, according to Ciudadanos, the powers they have withdrawn are delegated by mayor, while those that the investigated councilor maintains, he specified Aix, are delegated by the Governing Board, where Ciudadanos has a majority. «He has, like all the councilors of this government team, powers in terms of recruitment. That is the reason why Mr. Noguera continues to work and, of course, getting paid, “he settled.
For his part, Ángel Noguera’s interventions were somewhat more restrained and he limited himself to defending his management and that of the Department that he held until last Friday afternoon. «Infrastructure has 12 works underway throughout the municipality. Possibly we are the council that has carried out the most works and projects without budgets. In fact, we now easily have 10 projects stopped, and not because of our fault, but because of Intervention or, in one case, because the Confederation does not give us permission in the case of the Vega Renhace works»
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Likewise, in line with the statement made public by Ciudadanos last Friday, Noguera accused the PP of being aware that, in a commission of investigation, they were informed that, contrary to what was stated in the contract documents, there were workers from the winning bidder working outside of Orihuela, nor did they have their own industrial warehouse.
Aix elaborated on this last matter and explained that said facilities, according to the specifications, should be at Calle Diamante number 4 in Lomas de Cabo Roig and have been operated under a lease by the winning bidder, however, this was never done. In fact, he confirmed, “that ship is currently being used by a different company for a different purpose than serving the coastal road maintenance contract.”
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Noguera also recalled that Infrastructure is not, ultimately, the one who authorizes the payment of invoices, but the Councilor for Finance and the Governing Board in clear allusion to the then head of the area, Rafael Almagro. He also specified that the last invoices that Zaplana Caselles passed are not paid. «The invoices as they arrive I signed them and they are paid. And in this case, first, he argued why he did not sign them and, later, I argue that he paid them knowing that there is a breach of contract ». And he denied having a personal problem with this company. “In fact, they are the ones who are undertaking the works on the river walk without any problem.”
Complaint “electoralist”
The vice mayor and leader of Ciudadanos took the opportunity to reiterate once again that the complaint filed in the second instance by the popular spokesman, Rafael Almagro, against Noguera responds to an “electoralist” strategy. “How curious that they launched into denouncing these alleged bad practices just after we presented a motion of censure and kicked them out of the government,” Aix said. “Before, you can see that Mr. Noguera did nothing wrong,” he reproached his former government partners.
The leader of Ciudadanos thus defended that, while they governed with the popular ones, they always defended in the Governing Board that there were “non-compliances” in the coastal road maintenance contract and that, therefore, these irregularities, he insisted, “warned in reports technicians”, “they had to carry at least the deduction of part of the invoices”. In this sense, he accused Rafael Almagro of ordering the full payment of those invoices “bypassing the technical reports.”
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