Fingerings dot the mayor of Valencia: "If anyone is interested, tell me in private"
Some audios reveal that a PP councilor would have favored the relocation of municipal employees
ValenciaThe Councilor for Major Projects of the Valencia City Council, José Marí Olano, would have favored the placement of several workers in municipal companies. This is suggested by some audio recordings advanced by Eldiario.es which record conversations between Olano and employees of the public company Consorcio Valencia 2007. In the recordings, it is heard how the politician would have provided information about future employment calls that would have served employees to relocate once the company they worked for was extinguished. The recordings belong to the case opened by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for alleged crimes of prevarication and influence peddling, in which the mayoress of Valencia and high-ranking PP official, María José Catalá, and the president of the Port, Mar Chao, among other public officials, are being investigated.
During the meeting between Olano and the employees, the councilor details the calls for job positions in municipal entities and encourages them to apply for them. "This is all I could get," he states at one point in the meeting. At another, he invites employees to discreetly let him know their availability: "If anyone is interested, tell me in private." The audios also reveal how the PP politician presents the calendar of calls and explains the real margin of maneuver of the consistory.
Notarial deeds 20 days before the award
The investigation by Anticorruption was opened following a complaint from the municipal group Compromís in the City Council, which points to possible irregularities in the almost simultaneous announcement of job positions in the Port Authority of Valencia and in municipal entities such as Visit Valencia or the Municipal Sports Foundation. One of the elements that have reinforced suspicions is the existence of notarial deeds dated May 8, 2024, that is, 20 days before the awarding of positions in the Port Authority of Valencia, in which the names of the people who would end up obtaining the jobs already appeared.
From the Valencia City Council, they defend that all the calls have been made within the law and that the process has been supervised by municipal technicians. Apart from the mayor of the city, the president of the port, Mar Chao; the councilor for Tourism and Innovation, Paula Llobet, and the one for Education, Equality and Sports, Rocío Gil, are also being investigated in the case, in addition to four public workers: Esther Pérez, Manuela Gras, Alicia Gimeno and Enrique Móner. Catalá has downplayed the complaint and attributed it to Compromís's interest in discrediting her a year before the elections.