The Anti-Fraud Office opens an investigation into the hiring of Orriols' daughter as a local police officer

BarcelonaNew setback for Sílvia Orriols. The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia (OAC) has opened an investigation into the mayor of Ripoll for alleged irregularities in the hiring of her daughter as a local police officer. The OAC procedure responds to a complaint, which has been admitted for processing and now moves to an investigation phase, in which it will be assessed whether it has merit. Last week, both in the plenary session and the following day in a press conference without questions, Orriols denied having influenced the hiring of her daughter as a local police officer and defended that she obtained "the best grade in a regulated selection process" for an emergency position.

"All the subsidized press publishing big headlines like 'Anti-Fraud investigates Orriols for her daughter's hiring process' in a desperate attempt to sow doubt. That it was the biased and interested complaint of a political opponent that has been admitted for processing and not an ex officio action, they reflect in the small print. You are desperate...", Orriols denounced on X once the news became public. Immediately afterwards, she revealed that Roger Molinas, a former ICV militant and now with Comuns, was behind the complaint and that his only objective was to "manipulate public opinion and question the selection process for the Local Police where my daughter obtained the best grade".

The complainant did not take long to respond. "I see you are very nervous. Do you think you scare me by pointing me out? You are no rival for me, fascist demagogue. Justice will put you in your place and you will be nothing more than a footnote in the history of the nationalist far-right," replied Molinas, who recalled that at 16 he took to court "four homophobic neo-Nazis, at 25 he uncovered the violent and neo-Nazi past of a PxC councilor." "This third-rate regional freak doesn't even tickle me..." he added in the same tweet. "After the fascist Orriols' tweet pointing me out, the intellectuals of her followers start arriving with their profound philosophical and legal reflections. It is clear that they are eminences," he snapped before making his account private. For her part, Orriols said that Molinas "likes to arbitrarily point out and report those who think differently but doesn't like to be discovered..." to criticize that he blocked him on X.

Orriols has maintained from the start of the controversy that he has abstained "absolutely from participating in anything that affects the process". However, municipal decrees show that the mayor did indeed sign acts related to the call for applications, such as the approval of the process's terms (with a practical test and an interview) and the appointment of the tribunal, made up of a sergeant and two corporals from the local police. And the law on the legal regime of the public sector establishes that in case of a close relationship or kinship, the political leader must withdraw from the call for applications.

Therefore, for a public official to intervene in any phase when there is a conflict of interest may violate the duty of abstention and, where appropriate, lead to the challenge of the process or administrative responsibilities. It should be emphasized that the mayor intervened in the process when she already knew that her daughter was a candidate for the position because the call for applications opened on June 11 and she signed the mayoral decree on June 30, which resolved key elements of the selection process.

An urgent matter in question

The City Council justified the urgency of the appointment due to an "unavoidable need" to reinforce the Local Police, which leaves room for there to be no representatives from the Generalitat on the tribunal, as is the case in other procedures that do not have this character. Thus, Orriols alleged "an understaffing of personnel" that compromised the efficient provision of the service. The opposition, on the other hand, points out that the ordinary process to fill the position had been halted for about six months before being reactivated and that if it were such an urgent need, it is difficult to explain why the process was not accelerated when two positions became vacant more than a year ago.

Junts per Ripoll has also made a political move. After asking the mayor last week to delegate the powers of the Security department to avoid a "conflict of interest," on Tuesday they formally registered this request. "We are not asking Sílvia Orriols to stop being mayor or to renounce powers that have nothing to do with this case. We are asking her not to politically direct the Local Police while her daughter works there as an agent," Junts remarked in a statement. On Wednesday, however, Orriols refused again: "I will not abandon the Security and Immigration department as the opposition asks me to... Firstly, because the selection process has been clean, transparent, and based on the law. And secondly, because guaranteeing security and curbing immigration are my priority."