The municipal secretary of Andorra sends party contracts to the prosecutor
The secretary of the town hall Andorra has remitted to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Teruel seven hirings of the patron saint festivities of San Macario in case “there may be some kind of responsibility” because it has appreciated “indications of irregularities”. In a report, the technician warned that there was “verbal contracting”, a totally illegal proceeding because “the procedure established” in the Public Sector Contracts Law was not followed when contracting without credit and after the deadline, despite the warnings and the negative reports of the secretariat and intervention, five orchestras, the performance of the Artists of the Guild and the stands and fences of the heifers. This document, dated last Monday, was made publicly known this Tuesday by the PAGES at a press conference in which he announced that his municipal group is also going to refer him to the Prosecutor’s Office and that this Wednesday he will take him to the plenary session. The popular ones already warned a month ago of the possible irregularities and asked the secretary to make a complete report.
The popular influence that in the festivities in honor of San Macario there was a budget gap of around 152,000 euros at a cost of 360,000 euros compared to 208,000 with which the council had. “We cannot allow illegal contracts to be made or to act in violation of all legality,” says the PP spokeswoman, Silvia Quílez, who was accompanied by the president of the formation in Teruel, Joaquín Juste.
The technique is addressed at all times to the Councilor for Celebrations and acting mayor -due to the temporary resignation of the incumbent, Antonio Amador-, Joaquín Bielsa. In a Board of Spokespersons after the celebrations, Bielsa acknowledged that there was not enough credit for the parties and that he only had two options, either cancel the acts or carry them out without contracting and without a budgeted item. “He opted for this second option despite the warnings of the technicians,” the report emphasizes. Yesterday, when asked by this means, Bielsa maintained that “if there have been errors, it is due to lack of budget and other issues” and that he will try to “correct them.”
In the document, the technique recounts everything that has happened since the month of May and the subsequent warnings that he has been making to the PSOE-PAR government team and other officials by email and verbally. The day before and the first day of the holidays –September 6 and 7– the secretary received Bielsa’s hiring proposal by negotiated procedure before which she indicated that it was not possible because the minimum procedural deadlines could not be met. She has already started the festivities, on the 7th and 8th, she sends the negative reports to the secretariat about the musical performances and the objections to the intervention of the heifers. However, the same 8 receives “all afternoon” calls from the mayor and deputy mayors to his personal phone indicating that his signature is necessary to carry out the contracts, to which he answers by recalling that the contracts have no file and the established procedure has not been carried out, so if they are undertaken “they will be considered a contract speech that totally dispenses with procedures”.
Last May, the technique already observed that orchestras could not be hired when there was not enough in the current budget at that time, the one extended from 2021. Once the 2022 account was approved in August, the technique returns to make warnings verbally and in writing that the amount available is not sufficient to carry out all the actions that the council wants and that it is necessary to choose.
At that time he also warns that if the shows to be contracted are not decided soon “it will not be possible to meet the established deadlines”. September has already entered, on the 2nd, he sends an email to several members of the corporation and technicians in which he realizes that given the impossibility of complying with the regulations, any proposal that exceeds 5,000 euros will be negatively reported ( from this amount it ceases to be a minor contract that can be awarded by finger) and that everything that goes beyond that will be a verbal contract prohibited by law.