The alleged diversion of public funds in the Consell Esportiu de L’Hospitalet (CELH), a private entity that promotes school sports controlled by the PSC, has new derivatives. Agents from the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the National Police have searched the Cornellà City Council offices and the headquarters of the Consell Esportiu del Baix Llobregat (Cebllob), in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, from early this Monday. The investigation, under summary secrecy, derives from the L’Hospitalet case and has its origin in a presumably irregular contract awarded by the council to the CELH. The Police have arrested 11 people, including the deputy mayor and Councilor for the Economy Sergio Fernández, in addition to the former mayor of Sports José Manuel Parrado and eight municipal technicians. Four of them will go to court.
The agents searched for nine hours for documentation that proves the alleged irregularities. According to a City Council spokeswoman, the police did not specify what files they needed because the case is under summary secrecy. The municipal government assures that it offered “maximum collaboration” to the UDEF and is “fully convinced of the honesty” of those investigated. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has confirmed that the case is in the hands of the investigating court number 4 of Cornellà for the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and fraud against the public administration. The president of Cebllob is the former director of the Sports area of Cornellà Salvador Valls, one of the detainees. His press team has avoided answering questions from this newspaper.
The entries and records of this Monday derive from the case that is instructed in the court of instruction 2 of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat for the case of the Consell Esportiu. The agents found a series of irregularities and the court recused itself in favor of those from Cornellà. The case dates back to 2018, when the Cornellà City Council signed a service contract for 89,222 euros with the CELH, which was the only entity that applied for the call. According to the emails that appear in the summary of the case, which EL PAÍS has accessed, those responsible for the entity were helped and guided by officials of the consistory to obtain the award.
“A 10% bite”
The CELH had to provide an “arbitration service for the Cornellà school games competition”. But the reality of that service is under suspicion. The referees, presumably, received a bank transfer from the CELH, which later invoiced the service to the council with higher amounts, according to sources close to the investigation. The UDEF points to Eduard Galí, director of the CELH, and its former president Cristian Alcázar as the main parties under investigation in the rigged contract between the CELH and the Cornellà City Council. The latter is deputy mayor of L’Hospitalet and first secretary of the municipal PSC.
“Mr. Galí, in collusion with other Cornellà City Council officials and the CELH president himself [Alcázar]”, says the UDEF, “they articulated a fictitious relationship between the public and the private body in order to be awarded a contract for the provision of alleged services, for which they would receive a ‘bite’ of 10%”. The Police adds that it must be clarified who is the beneficiary of these commissions. At the moment there is no evidence in the summary that points to irregular financing of the PSC.
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The mayor of Cornellà, Antonio Balmón, planned to attend an event on Tuesday at the headquarters of Fomento del Trabajo. As executive vice president of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), Balmón was to give a conference entitled “A commitment for the metropolitan city”. On Monday afternoon, while police entries and searches continued, the event was cancelled.
In L’Hospitalet, the judge is investigating around twenty people —15 of them are members of the PSC— for the alleged irregularities in the subsidies that the City Council granted to the CELH. The investigation has proven a repeated lack of control of the entity’s accounts —which declares less income than it receives— and tries to clarify what was the final origin of the allegedly diverted money. The agents suspect that, thanks to its control over the body, the L’Hospitalet City Council has built a patronage network that has ended up strengthening the party. In the case, the mayor of the city, Núria Marín, is being investigated for her presumed passivity when she learned, from the hands of councilor Jaume Graells —who denounced the case— the irregularities in the Consell. Marín denied the facts before the judge and stated that she immediately ordered an internal audit. The ties of the Baix Llobregat socialist family in this case are also evident with Montserrat Pérez, the head of Marín’s cabinet, also investigated by the judge. Pérez was a councilor of the Cornellà City Council until 2019, when she was signed by Marín.
The first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, reiterated this Monday that the party believes that both Marín and Balmón “have done things well.” “If this has not been the case”, added Illa, “we want to be the first to collaborate so that what has happened is discovered, as well as to correct what needs to be corrected”. The Commons have charged the Socialists again, reports Angels Pinol. The partners of the PSC in the Barcelona City Council and in the central government act as private prosecutors in the CELH case because they consider that Marín did not do enough to prosecute the alleged irregularities. “The PSC has not given convincing explanations,” said Joan Mena, spokesperson for Catalunya en Comú.
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