The instructor of the ‘La Sal II case’ accuses him of alleged prevarication, embezzlement and subsidy fraud
The head of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Murcia has put the former president of the Ramón Luis Valcárcel Community one step away from sitting on the bench of the accused.
In an order notified yesterday, the magistrate Ana Isabel Navarro agrees to continue the procedure against the former head of the regional Executive between 1995 and 2014 for his alleged involvement in the case of the Escombreras desalination plant (‘La Sal II case’). The magistrate points to the alleged commission of the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement and subsidy fraud by the person who still holds the honorary presidency of the Popular Party of the Region of Murcia, whom she describes as the promoter of the project from his position as head of the Council of Government of the Community during the years in which it was undertaken.
The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to LA VERDAD that it intends to file an accusation, which would lead to the opening by the judge of an abbreviated procedural order that would direct former President Ramón Luis Valcárcel to the defendant’s bench to be subjected to oral trial.
This order is directly marked by the line that the Provincial Court already started at the end of March 2022, in a resolution in which, in the face of an appeal from the prosecutor, the order dismissing the accusations against Ramón Luis Valcárcel initially issued by the instructor and remarked that the former president “knew and knew quite a bit” about the steps taken in the development of the Escombreras desalination plant project.
A few months later, pulling that thread, the magistrate now concludes that “there are indications” that the desalination plant project was promoted from the presidency of the Community by Ramón Luis Valcárcel himself, “who ordered the acquisition of the desalination plant and that I knew all the steps that were taken.
The investigating magistrate, although she emphasizes that it is circumstantial, concludes that the former president’s actions “could be considered active in carrying out acts from the presidency aimed at favoring the illicit plan designed between the public and private parties, with a project to build the desalination plant.” . At this point, she remarks that this work “seems to directly violate the Water Law and the regulations governing the public works concession contract, carried out with private legal advice and without the existence of technical reports or the necessary economic control” . She stresses that “the designed operation intentionally avoided such controls.” In the project, the instructor emphasizes, “possible formulas of indirect management or concession” were not used either.
The Prosecutor’s Office, which promoted the annulment of the initially decreed file, plans to file an accusation
The magistrate understands that, throughout the investigation, indications have appeared that Valcárcel cooperated in a significant way in this plot, “with the adoption of agreements within the Governing Council chaired by himself, which although they could in themselves not be illegal, they were allowing the operation designed from the beginning ».
The judge, however, opens the door to the ex-chief of the Executive being accused of omission, “because, being in a position of guarantor, he maintained a passive action for many years in the face of the project to acquire a desalination plant with million-dollar investments, compromising the heritage of the Community, despite the possibility of having intervened directly due to its position of control of the event.
Statements and emails
In the criterion of the instructor at the time of directing Valcárcel to the oral trial, different factors have weighed. In the first place, Valcárcel’s own responsibility and powers as president, which place him “in a clear position as guarantor” of the project. Secondly, “the fundamental milestones of the project, successive and concatenated among themselves, are of such magnitude that it is difficult for them to go unnoticed by the person who held the position of President of the Governing Council.” “That knowledge of everything that happened also follows from some personal explanations of the investigated in his statement of June 19, 2020,” says the order published yesterday. In said statement, Valcárcel “accepted significant knowledge of what happened with the desalination plant from very specific moments in time and certain negative consequences for the Autonomous Community.”
The order highlights that the former president carried out “acts to favor the illicit plan designed between the public and private parties”
Likewise, the statements of the witnesses and others investigated, among them former senior officials and officials of the regional Administration, from which a primordial role of the former president is clear so that the Escombreras desalination plant could move forward.
Regarding the documentary evidence, the order highlights “two emails that could prove that the person under investigation was informed of a very relevant circumstance, such as the advance purchase of the remaining 49% of the share capital of the company Desaladora de Escombreras SA, which takes place on July 14, 2010». Which meant “that the Community assumed, without reasonable explanation in this regard, many more million-dollar charges related to the project.” Other emails reveal alleged meetings in San Esteban directly related to the ins and outs of this infrastructure.
Thirty day term
The instructor, given the length and complexity of the proceedings, gives the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the private accusations a month to request the opening of an oral trial -as is expected to happen-, formulating an indictment or dismissing it. Exceptionally, they could request, in advance, the practice of some complementary diligence. This resolution can still be appealed.
In addition to the proceedings against Ramón Luis Valcárcel, the investigation of the ‘La Sal case’ focused in a first phase on the members of the board of directors of the Public Water Entity and the Public Company of the Escombreras Desalination Plant, including the former director of Agriculture and Water and president of the Entity, Antonio Cerdá, in what the judicial resolution calls “public part”; and the administrators or representatives of the company Hydromanagement and the company Técnicas de Desalination de Aguas (Tedagua), or “private party”. In addition to the commercial companies Hydromanagement, Tedagua, Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios SA, Moncobra SA, Cobra Gestión de Infraestructuras SLU, Hidronostrum SA and Escombreras Desalter (the latter two through Esamur).
PSRM: “The PP has sown the region with mines of corruption”
“It is the legacy of 27 years of PP governments, which have planted mines of corruption in the Region, which explode one after another and destroy the regional economy, which means that we do not have health, education or social services. of quality because everyone’s money has gone into the pockets of a few». This was expressed by the spokesperson and deputy secretary general of the PSRM, Carmina Fernández, who stressed that “the two predecessors of López Miras are accused of corruption.” Fernández stressed that “this gigantic fraud” of the Escombreras desalination plant “has cost 600 million euros to all the citizens of the Region of Murcia.” In addition, she emphasized that this infrastructure promoted by the regional government is not working, “while similar facilities promoted by the Executive of Spain, such as the San Pedro del Pinatar II desalination plant, cost 90 million euros and are in full production. ».
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