Compromís questions the candidate Eduardo Beut to direct the Anti-Fraud Agency for his links with Zaplana

The parliamentary groups in Les Corts Valencianes have not presented any candidacy for the leadership of the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Fraud and Corruption of the Valencian Community, which will be attended by Gustavo Adolfo Segura and Eduardo Beut, proposed by four civic organizations. The deadline for the presentation of the candidates, who will replace Joan Llinares at the head of the Agency, whose seven-year mandate ends at the end of May, concluded this Wednesday, at 2:00 p.m.

Segura is the current director of Analysis and Research of the Anti-Fraud Agency and his candidacy has been presented by the three organizations: the Foundation for Justice, Acción Cívica and the Observatori Ciutadà contra la Corrupció. Beut, for his part, has been promoted by the Spanish Association of Managers for Public Administration (AEGAP), as reported by the Presidency of Les Corts to Efe. No party has wanted to present its own candidate, although Compromís has announced its support for Segura. The candidacy of Llinares, the first director of the Agency, was presented by three civil entities.

Precisely, the ombudsman of Compromís in Les Corts, Joan Baldoví, questioned Beut's candidacy this morning. “It is extremely suspicious that a person linked to the PP presents a close collaborator of Eduardo Zaplana as a candidate to lead the Anti-Fraud Agency.” “He has had a direct professional and friendship relationship with the former president of the Generalitat Eduardo Zaplana and his former chief of staff Juan Francisco García.”

After being a delegate of the Tax Agency in Valencia, Eduardo Beut was appointed, at the proposal of the PP, director and vice president of the Portfolio of Industrial Participations, a joint company of Bancaja and the CAM, sponsored by Zaplana, when he was president of the Generalitat Valenciana, he has advanced The confidential. In addition, he was manager of the builders' association Fecoval (Federation of Companies of the Valencian Community Administration Construction Contractors) and Finance Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico, before returning to work as a Treasury inspector. He was also a partner for a few years in a central bookstore in Valencia, along with Juan Francisco García, Zaplana's chief of staff, when he presided over the Generalitat.

The former Minister of Labor in the Government of José María Aznar is the main defendant in the Erial case, which will be tried in the Valencia Court starting on February 1. He is accused of the alleged crimes of money laundering, bribery, falsification of commercial documents and administrative prevarication for the alleged overpayment of commissions in the awarding of the ITV and wind farm concessions of the Generalitat. Juan Francisco García is also accused, along with 13 other people, including the former Valencian president, José Luis Olivas.

At the request of the investigating court, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency prepared two expert reports on the ITV tender in 1997 and on the wind plan of the Valencian Community in 2001, in which a series of irregularities and singularities were detected with respect to another contests.

Baldoví has ​​also stressed that Inmaculada Luz Collado, president of the entity that presented Beut, “is linked to the PP and is demonstrated by the fact that she has been part of its electoral lists in El Palomar and in Riola in the municipal elections of 2023 and 2019″.

The spokesperson considers that “behind this we see the tentacles of the PP and a deliberate attempt to block the appointment of a person at the head of the Anti-Fraud Agency, endorsed by organizations that truly fight against corruption, a proposal that truly arises from society. civil”. “We think that the proposal that has been made responds to a hidden objective of trying to block or suppress an agency that was created by the Botànic government. [la anterior Generalitat gobernada por la izquierda]has added.

The Board of Trustees of Les Corts d next week will foreseeably address the presentation of these candidacies with the aim that the vote for the final election takes place throughout the new period of sessions, which begins on January 29. 60% of the votes are required (three-fifths), so the two parties that support the Government of the Generalitat, the PP and Vox, need to have the support of some deputies of the opposition, formed by the PSPV- PSOE and Compromís.

In search of understanding

For his part, the general secretary of the PPCV and deputy spokesperson of the popular group in Les Corts, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, has defended that his party “will maintain the same line as until now” and will bet on “dialogue and seeking understanding” with all the political forces that have representation in the Chamber. Pérez Llorca has indicated that the PPCV plans to choose between the proposals made by civil associations with the aim of “depoliticizing the process and having a common candidate as soon as possible.”

The popular deputy spokesperson recalled in a statement that the commitment to consensus “has always been present since the PP won the elections in the Valencian Community”, and added: “We have tried to do it in the renewal of the statutory bodies and “We are going to do it in the election of the person who will lead the Anti-Fraud Agency.”

For his part, the ombudsman of the PSPV, José Muñoz, has stressed that we must “respect the procedures and procedures” and his group will wait for the explanations of their project that the candidates will present in the corresponding parliamentary commission. Muñoz has defended the need for political parties to “not have candidates” for this agency, which has to be “neutral
” and non-partisan.

The Vox parliamentary group did not want to comment on the candidates for the Anti-Fraud Agency.