The Lleida judge who is investigating a case of corruption of alleged rigging of the awards of road construction and maintenance servicesas well as the alleged payment of commissions to people linked to the CDC and foundations in its orbit, such as CatDem, has now charged seven construction companies, according to the car to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access. The investigation of the ‘Operation Boreas’ led to the resignation of Joan Reñé, who was arrested in October 2018, as president of the Lleida Provincial Council.
The head of the Investigating Court number 1 of Lleida, Diana Lawrence Morninghas cited the seven accused companies, among which are Sorigué, Arno, volts Y fences, for next July 3. In addition, four other accused persons must appear two days before, on July 1. From the macro operation that was carried out in Lleida in October 2018 in which some 25 people were arrested, including Reñé, several avenues of investigation have been followed. One of them is the alleged manipulation of awards for maintenance and construction of highways. The extensive investigations of the Mossos have originated the imputation now of these seven companies.
These construction companies, according to the investigators, formed a group that supposedly could have had privileged information from within the Diputación de Lleida of the contracts that were going to be awarded in relation to road maintenance. The adjudication system was known as the GISAwhich allowed the technical valuation to be above the economic one, which, it is suspected, could make the score vary and, therefore, redirect the award towards certain related companies.
Expel other companies
According to the investigations carried out by the Mossos, the companies allegedly adjusted the offers and agreed to expel from the market those companies from outside Lleida and that were not related. In exchange, some of them (not all) allegedly made financial contributions to foundations, such as Catdem, or made black payments to certain people. There are witnesses who have stated the existence of an agreement between the construction companies and the existence of black money to later pay the alleged illegal commissions or kickbacks. One of them has even admitted having carried envelopes or signed checks to withdraw funds in cash that would go to certain suspects in this plot.
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In this same sense, according to the investigators, telephone conversations were intercepted and both emails as manuscripts in which contacts between companies and officials are reflected, as well as the representatives of the construction companies that had to attend the meetings in which the concessions were distributed. In some of those telephone contacts they referred to “the people of Lleida & rdquor; when an out-of-orbit builder asked one of them if he had a chance of winning the contest or if the job had already been awarded.
‘Triacom case’ in Madrid
The Lleida investigation uncovered that one of the companies involved in the plot, MYJ Grúas, was also related to the ‘Triacom case’ of alleged illegal financing of the CDC that is instructed in the National High Court as a separate piece of the ‘case 3%’ payment of alleged commissions in exchange for the award of public works. According to the prosecutor, this company is a holding company that “was especially benefited & rdquor; in the adjudication of public works for a value of €60 million by the Generalitat and other administrations when they were governed by CiU. The indictment stresses that the “Triacom plot” (producer of the contest ‘El Gran Dictat’, broadcast by TV-3) appears on the invoices provided by the denouncing partner of the company MYJ Grúas and later corroborated by the Tax Agency.