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

BarcelonaNew setback for Sílvia Orriols. The Office Against Fraud 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 next day in a press conference without questions, Orriols denied having influenced her daughter's hiring as a local police officer and defended that she obtained "the best grade in a regulated selection process" for an urgent position.

"I have absolutely abstained from participating in anything that affects the process." In this way, Orriols defended that she abstained from the procedure and did not intervene in the evaluation of the candidates. However, municipal decrees show that the mayor did sign acts related to the call for applications, such as the approval of the process's bases (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 responsible must withdraw from the call for applications.

Therefore, that the public official intervenes in any phase when there is a conflict of interest may violate the duty of abstention and, where appropriate, lead to the annulment 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 was opened on June 11 and she signed the mayoral decree on June 30, which resolved key elements of the selection process.

The City Council justified the appointment due to an "unavoidable need" to reinforce the Local Police. 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 was such an urgent need, it is difficult to explain why the process was not accelerated when there were two positions that 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 council to avoid a "conflict of interest", on Tuesday they formally registered this request. "We are not asking Sílvia Orriols to step down as mayor or to renounce powers unrelated to 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 council as the opposition asks me to... First, because the selection process has been clean, transparent, and based on the law. And second, because ensuring security and curbing immigration are my priority", she retorted.