The Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard continued this Wednesday the investigation into alleged irregular procurement of public works in the area of the Provincial Council of Almería, derived from the case that investigates the irregular procurement of masks at the beginning of the pandemic for two million euros. In addition to the arrest of the first number three of the supra-provincial institution, the former vice-president Óscar Liria – the first arrested for this mask cases- and new acts in the municipal council of Fines, of which the mayor and his son were also arrested on Tuesday, the investigations have extended to two brothers of the president of the provincial council, Javier Aureliano García, as announced Efewho has also been sleeping for two days in the cells of the Civil Guard Command in the capital of Almería.
This brings to 10 those under investigation for this alleged conspiracy which would have irregularly awarded public contracts and services to a network of companies linked to the municipality of Fines, where its mayor Rodrigo Sánchez has governed since 2003. Throughout this morning those arrested, the president and first vice-president of the Provincial Council, Fernando Giménez, also accused case masks-, the former vice president Liria, his uncle, the mayor of Fines, the councilor’s son and a technician from the Provincial Council – will be brought to justice and their procedural situation will be clarified.
Although Giménez and Sánchez had been accused practically since the investigation into the mask case began four years ago, it was only with the arrests of this Tuesday that the Andalusian PP, chaired by Juan Manuel Moreno, decided to suspend from militancy all the leaders of the parties involved in this second phase of the investigation. Moreno referred to this case last night during the presentation of his memoirs in Madrid to defend his party’s “speed of action”. The Prime Minister, accompanied by the former Vice President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy, and the leader of his party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, promised “strength” “if it is proven that corruption exists”, although he asked to wait until Thursday to find out the decision of the judge investigating the case.
Moreno was present with García himself in Almería, an event that took place in one of the auditoriums that the president of the Provincial Council owns under his name in Balanegra, the president’s hometown. Two weeks earlier, the popular leader had included García as a member in his regional executive. Two days later he was arrested by the UCO as part of an investigation into irregular hiring.
The Provincial Council of Almería has for decades been under the spotlight of investigations into alleged irregular contracts, most linked to the construction company Hispano Almería, awarded works in several municipalities of Almería, such as Almería, Roquetas de Mar, Carboneras, La Mojonera or Níjar, and also linked to alleged irregular financing of the PP of Almería, since Luis Rogelio Rodríguez-Comendador chaired the body supra-municipal, which that party has governed uninterruptedly since 1995 – with the arrival of Rodríguez-Comendador – until today, except from 1999 to 2003. Almost all these cases, as recalled by Luis Montoya, member of the Mediterranean Anti-Corruption and Transparency Association (Amayat), one of the main promoters of these investigations, have been archived or are blocked, “after instructions based on reports of the Udef, very long, torn to pieces and with the involvement of many technicians and municipal officials”, he recalls.
Since the time of Rodríguez-Comendador, now in the Senate, “there has been a coincidence between the presidency of the Provincial Council, that of the Popular Party in the province and, in parallel, in the municipalities of which they were mayors”, says Montoya, also referring to Gabriel Amat, mayor of Roquetas de Mar, at the helm of the institution for 17 years, from 2004 to 2021. García was his vice president and Giménez’s chief of staff Amat. Both reached the top of the Provincial Council, together with Liria, when councilor Roqueño abandoned his duties at the helm of that institution. “It is a trio that has always acted in harmony,” claims a source close to the friendship and relationship between the three leaders of the Provincial Council now in prison.
“The provincial councils have investment plans and it is they who allocate most of the funds to the small municipal councils with a limited budget, it is a way to control and satisfy these municipalities and then guarantee the vote, this is how the Provincial Council in Almería has worked since the PP existed,” says Montoya who, through Amayat, has described this modus operandi in many of the judicial investigations that have developed into alleged irregularities in the awarding of public works. “And many of these companies are always linked to relatives of PP politicians or are managed by them,” he adds.
Until now and despite the fact that most of the cases in which corruption was investigated were concentrated in Almería, Moreno had not touched the provincial power structure in a formation that never supported him when he landed in Andalusia to take the reins of the party. “It was an electoral fiefdom, apparently well oiled,” claims the same source. “Until now the cases investigated had not gone beyond a few accusations, but all the leaders suspected of having never appeared as suspects in the cases, one might have thought that the same thing would have happened with this case, after so long of investigation”, says the source consulted. Now, say members of the president’s entourage, things will be different. “Heads will roll if necessary,” they warn.
