The former ICV minister Salvador Milà, investigated in the same case as Elena and Herrera

BarcelonaThe High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) announced this Wednesday that it has expanded the investigation for alleged irregular awards in Altafulla to ERC deputy and former minister Joan Ignasi Elena and former Initiative leader Joan Herrera. The investigation, however, has several ramifications. At the Supreme Court, the former mayor of Altafulla and current Congressman for Comuns, Félix Alonso, is being investigated, and there is still a third prong in the hands of a court in El Vendrell: there, the investigating judge has already brought the former ICV minister during the tripartite government, Salvador Milà, to the brink of trial for prevarication, as reported by El País and confirmed by Efe. The decision is pending the appeal filed by Milà before the Provincial Court of Tarragona.

Contacted by ARA, Milà states that, like many other small town halls "of all political colors", the one in Altafulla hired them on several occasions between 2013 and 2017 to advise them on different cases. Invoices were submitted for each specific case. In total, twelve invoices amounting to 31,720 euros. The judge sees indications of a crime in the awarding of a minor contract for advisory services. According to the investigating judge, in 2016 the mayor had ordered the municipal secretary to report in favor of contracting this service because it was not possible for council staff to provide it. The municipal comptroller had recorded that there was a budget of 12,100 euros to contract the service for a maximum of one year. Despite it being a "recurring and continuous service over time", there was no awarding procedure. In addition to these advisory services, Milà allegedly issued two more invoices for 4,911 and 1,031 euros, which he allegedly collected without a contract.

In 2017, the City Council stopped contracting Milà Advocats and signed an advisory contract with the company managed by Elena and Herrera, Sinergia EDM, following a similar procedure: a series of minor contracts were awarded until 2019, amounting to approximately 30,000 euros. In the court's opinion, this could constitute a crime of prevarication in cooperation with the then mayor, Fèlix Alonso Cantorné, who is being investigated by the Supreme Court for allegedly favoring them.

The recent indictments have not caught the current council off guard. In a conversation with ARA, the mayor of Altafulla, the republican Jordi Molinera, explains that they expected it since they became aware of the investigation: it was in October 2023, when the Mossos d'Esquadra searched the town hall for documents. "We saw this coming and that it would progress," he admits.

"We are informed that Antifrau had received an anonymous complaint and we are stunned, because we knew nothing about it," recalls Molinera about the day of the police search. He explains that the complaint had reached Antifrau in August 2022, when Alternativa Altafulla –linked to Comuns– was in government with Junts, and the first information request was in October of the same year: "They hid that Antifrau was investigating it," Molinera reproaches Comuns. The investigation was judicially processed without anything becoming known, until the searches a year later at the town hall, when Molinera was already mayor.

ERC and Comuns had shared government until March 2016, when the republicans left the municipal executive. "The frenzy of contracts begins there," points out Molinera. "Whether the contracts are illegal or not, a judge will have to say, but coincidentally they are made in a legal advisory firm with which there is an evident political connection to the Comuns sector," he says, referring to Sinergia. "Joan Herrera was not just someone passing by," insists Molinera, who sees in the former leader of Iniciativa the "link" between the City Council and the consultancy. He also assures that when he regained the mayoralty in 2019, they "cut all contractual relations" with Sinergia and that when they put the legal advisory service out to tender, they did not bid. Contacted by ARA, Herrera recalls that he left the company in 2018 and, therefore, no longer had any connection with the 2019 contracts.

He asks for "responsibilities"

Regarding former minister Salvador Milà, Molinera states that between 2012 and 2013 he did work for the City Council, but he disconnects the assignments to his legal consultancy from those made to Sinergia: "He was the Urban Planning councilor at that time. I note that that work was done".

For the moment, the council has not requested to join the case, but it has "carried out a legal consultation" to assess it. On the other hand, Molinera insists on the need for "political responsibilities, especially for having hidden" the investigation, as she assures that the Altafulla government team, led by Montse Castellarnau, also investigated according to what El País has published.