A part of the Valencian business fabric linked to the construction sector was, during the years of the real estate bubble, immersed in the B financing of the PP of Francisco Camps and Rita Barberá. And part of the emergency contracts after the DANA that hit several regions of the province of València, awarded by the current autonomous Executive of Mazón, have gone to some of the businessmen who are sentenced as financiers of ‘box B’ of the Valencian PP or immersed in a judicial investigation.
This is the case of a vital sector such as treatment plants and water collectors, seriously damaged by the effects of DANA on October 29. The Public Entity for Wastewater Sanitation (EPSAR), dependent on the Department of Infrastructure, has allocated 50.6 million euros in emergency contracts for works on its infrastructure, of which 34.2 million have gone to companies that financed the Valencian PP, mainly within the framework of two corruption schemes – the ‘Gürtel case’ and the ‘Taula case’ – already sentenced by both the National Court and by the Provincial Court of Valencia. Additionally, another of the contracts has been awarded to a construction company that allegedly paid commissions to Rita Barberá’s brother-in-law, the lawyer José María Corbín, for alleged bribes investigated in the investigation of the ‘Azud case’. This latest batch of hand-picked contracts is added to the emergency awards to businessmen linked to the financing of the PP in ‘Gürtel’ for the repair works of the Buseo dam and for the section of the metro that crosses the Poyo ravine.
The regional secretary of Infrastructure and Transport, Javier Sendra Mengual, who reports to Minister Vicente Martínez Mus, has recently awarded emergency contracts for works on a dozen infrastructures with “major effects.” These are purifiers and collectors with damages that have not been able to be repaired “directly” by the companies that hold the operation and maintenance contracts, Javier Sendra states in the emergency declaration agreement. The damage caused by DANA has “seriously affected the proper functioning” of the infrastructure and, in some cases, has left it “completely out of service.”
– The construction company Becsa SA has received an emergency contract of 2.3 million euros for infrastructure works from EPSAR in Vilamarxant, a municipality located in the Valencian region of Camp de Túria. This is the same company that has been in charge of the works, also awarded by contract, on the Buseo dam in Sot de Chera, as reported by this newspaper.
One of the shareholders, Gabriel Alberto Batalla Reigada (son of the founder of the Castellón construction company), was convicted in 2018 of electoral crime and document falsification, after an agreement in accordance with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to confess the facts and thus reduce the sentence, in the piece of the ‘Gürtel case’ of the illegal financing of the Valencian PP. Becsa SA, as revealed in the summary of the ‘Fabra 2 case’, also paid private security expenses for Carlos Fabra after leaving his institutional positions.
Lubasa, the former brand of the company founded by Luis Batalla, contributed 200,000 euros to ‘box B’ of the PP of Valencia for Rita Barberá’s electoral campaign in the 2007 municipal elections, as proven by the ruling in separate piece A of ‘Taula case’, issued by the second section of the Provincial Court of Valencia on July 30.
– The Society of Farmers of La Vega (SAV)for its part, has obtained contracts totaling 9.5 million euros for works at the Pinedo treatment plant and EPSAR infrastructure in Algemesí, Albalat, l’Alcúdia and Carlet. The company, a historic concessionaire of the Valencia City Council, paid 300,000 euros between 2006 and 2007 to ‘box B’ of Rita Barberá’s PP, according to the same ruling in separate piece A of the ‘Taula case’.
– CHM Works and Infrastructure has obtained an emergency contract of 2.8 million euros for works on an EPSAR infrastructure in Utiel, one of the first towns affected by DANA. The president of the construction company, Francisco Javier Martínez Berna, was sentenced within the framework of the ‘Gürtel case’ to one year and nine months in prison for two electoral crimes related to the 2007 regional and municipal elections and for a crime of document falsification. His brother José Martínez Berna, director of the company, was also sentenced to the same penalty, following a compliance agreement signed in 2018 between both businessmen and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
The same firm, as this newspaper has reported, has also obtained 4.2 million euros from emergency contracts from the public company Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) for repair works on the section that crosses the Poyo ravine. . FGV, like EPSAR, depend on the Department of Infrastructure.
– Facsa, from businessman Enrique Gimenohas obtained contracts for a total value of 1.5 million euros for works at the EPSAR facilities in Benicarló, also affected by the second DANA in Castelló, and in Alzira and Carcaixent, two towns in the Ribera Alta region. Gimeno accepted, in the trial of the ‘Gürtel case’ in the National Court, a sentence of one year and nine months in prison for three electoral crimes and one crime of document falsification after having confessed to financing in B the Valencian PP in the electoral campaign. of the regional and municipal elections of 2007 and the general elections of 2008.
The businessman also made a loan – non-refundable – to Carlos Fabra, former popular president of the Castelló Provincial Council, which cost him the prosecution in the ‘Fabra 2 case’. The Facsa firm has controlled the water sector in Castelló since the end of the 19th century.
– FCC Aqualia (subsidiary of the construction giant that made donations, for a total of 60,000 euros, to the central ‘box B’ of the PP, as reflected in the ‘Bárcenas papers and recognized by its former president in an investigative commission in Congress) has been awarded a 7.4 million euro contract for works at the Buñol-Alborache WWTP. The construction company also contributed 200,000 euros to Rita Barberá’s PP between 2006 and 2007, as outlined in the ruling in part A of the ‘Taula case’.
– Environmental Pavaguaa subsidiary of the Pavasal group, has obtained 426,708 euros in an emergency contract for EPSAR infrastructure works on the circuit and in the Cheste educational complex. Pavasal paid a total of 240,000 euros to ‘box B’ of Rita Barberá’s PP, according to the ruling in part A of the ‘Taula case’.
– The construction company Ocide It has also been awarded a contract of 10.1 million euros for works on the Torrent and Picanya EPSAR collectors. This is a company that, according to the summary of the ‘Azud case’, paid alleged bribes to Rita Barberá’s brother-in-law, the lawyer José María Corbín, one of the main people investigated in the case, still in the investigation phase.
Up to a year and a half of works
The damage caused by DANA to the treatment plants and collectors, as explained by the regional secretary Javier Sendra Mengual, has generated a “situation of serious danger” for “public health and the environment” and for the “integrity” of the infrastructures themselves and the health and safety of workers. This situation, argues the senior regional official, “must be alleviated as soon as possible.”
However, EPSAR has encountered an additional problem: as a result of the current “conditions of inaccessibility” in some sections of collectors and affected facilities, “it has not been possible to determine the extent of the damage caused,” acknowledges the regional secretary of Infrastructure, who adds that “as the proposed actions are developed, new needs not initially foreseen may arise.”
In fact, one of the contracts – awarded to a firm unrelated to the PP financing for works at the Quart-Benàger Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) – has an estimated execution period of up to a year and a half. The works at the Utiel WWTP have a period of 14 months; the Pinedo treatment plant, 11 months; the Torrent and Picanya collectors, nine months; the deputies of Requena, Algemesí, Albalat, Alcúdia and Carlet six months; the EPSAR infrastructures in Vilamarxant, Buñol, Alborache and Requena-San Antonio and Aldeas de la Vega, four months, and the facilities in Benicarló, three months.
The works with a shorter estimated execution period, just one month, correspond to the Cheste circuit and educational complex.
Source: www.eldiario.es
