The essayist Naomi Klein explained in her book The shock doctrine the enormous business opportunity opened by what the author calls “disaster capitalism.” The DANA disaster on October 29 in the province of Valencia has been no exception. The destruction of road and railway infrastructure and wastewater treatment plants and collectors, among other elements, has created an enormous window of opportunity for construction companies and other contracting companies that have obtained succulent emergency contracts, awarded by hand by definition.
Among the commercial companies that have joined the rain of millions in the reconstruction phase, there are two firms in the orbit of the administrations governed by the PP in autonomous communities such as Murcia or Galicia that have entered the list of contractors of the Generalitat Valencian and that join the companies linked to corruption schemes of the popular in judicial cases such as ‘Gürtel’ or the ‘Taula case’.
The Government of Carlos Mazón has awarded, at least, almost 62 million euros to companies that financed different ‘boxes B’ of the PP, as elDiario.es has reported. The hand-picked contracts have gone to businessmen convicted of the Gürtel plot for works on railway infrastructure or for the repair of a dam seriously damaged by DANA. However, these are companies that had historically been awarded by the Generalitat Valenciana, including during the period of the Botànic Pact Executive, formed by the PSPV-PSOE, Compromís and Unides Podem and chaired by the socialist Ximo Puig.
Two other companies linked to the PP have been consolidated as contractors of the Generalitat Valenciana. This is STV Gestión SL, in which Mazón’s current chief of staff, the regional secretary José Manuel Cuenca, was responsible for communication and institutional relations, before joining, first, the popular parliamentary group in the Corts Valencianes, and then the regional elections of 2023, to the Palau de la Generalitat.
The Mazón Government awarded one of the first emergency contracts, for the cleaning of industrial estates affected by DANA, to the firm domiciled in Murcia. Mazón himself opened the door of the province of Alicante, when he presided over the Provincial Council, to STV Gestión SL, which has also been awarded million-dollar contracts by the Alicante City Council, governed by the popular Luis Barcala, or the Finestrat town council, whose mayor, Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, is also general secretary of the Valencian PP and spokesperson in the regional Parliament.
The public company Project Society for Digital Transformation, of which Mazón’s chief of staff is a director, recently awarded STV Gestión SL the contract—this time through an open procedure—for the maintenance and conservation service of green areas, facilities irrigation and water management of the City of Light of Alicante, for a total amount of 230,615 euros.
In addition, the Public Entity for Wastewater Sanitation (EPSAR) awarded an emergency contract of 3.2 million euros to the company Tecnología de la Comunicación y Obras Públicas SA, owned by several shareholders of STV Gestión SL.
Technology of Construction and Public Works SA also obtained, on December 12 for an amount of 1.4 million euros, an emergency contract from the Provincial Council of Valencia, chaired by the popular Vicente Mompó, for works on structures in two ravines in the municipality of Yátova.
Although there has not only been money from reconstruction for the works after DANA. The Servei Valencià d’Ocupació i Formació (Labora), which reports to Minister José Antonio Rovira, has awarded an emergency contract of 1.2 million euros for mobile employment units to the firm Silman 97 SL, specialized in communication and marketing, which has received more than 10 million euros in contracts from the Xunta de Galicia, both with Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Alfonso Rueda as presidents.
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