Seven years of seeking international support for the 'procés'

The former presidents of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and Artur Mas will preside over the PdeCat National Committee in September 2019.Andreu Dalmau

For seven years, between 2011 and 2017, the Generalitat developed an incessant and illegal work of international promotion of the

procés

, which included everything from high-level contacts of its main leaders with leaders and diplomats from foreign countries to the organization of activities of all kinds of forums, in order to gather support and recognition for the idea of ​​a close independence of Catalonia. On various occasions, these activities were financed with irregular contracts.

This is stated in the audit report instructed by the Court of Accounts against the former presidents of the Generalitat Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, as well as against the vice president Oriol Junqueras, six former councilors of the Generalitat.

This is stated in the audit report instructed by the Court of Accounts against the former presidents of the Generalitat Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, as well as against 38 other former high-ranking officials and officials of the Catalan Administration "

38 other former senior officials and officials of the Catalan Administration, for alleged accounting responsibility for the diversion of public funds used to seek international support for the

process

.

The report of the Court of Auditors states that this promotional work had a high cost for the public coffers, but difficult to calculate, because there was not a correct budgetary control of the expenses incurred nor is there sufficient documentation that allows to accredit the amounts allegedly deviated for these illegal purposes. The figure advanced by sources of the investigation, which places said accounting responsibility at 4.8 million euros, is only a first approximation to what can be established by judgment at the end of the procedure.

By way of example, when the report refers to the expenses incurred by the Generalitat's delegations abroad, it is emphasized that "the supporting documentation" made available to the Court of Auditors "was disorderly and incomplete, not complying with the rules of custody and formation of files ”. It is added that the system for filing and preserving the documents "was irregular and did not comply with the minimum standards that allow efficient and rational control." All of this "has notably hampered and sometimes limited the scope of the audit by the Court of Auditors."

Between 2011 and 2012, for example, these delegations spent a total of 1,049,261.63 euros, without the investigation carried out having allowed to reveal what that amount was used for. The court tried to establish a cost estimate based on the work performed. In this regard, the opinion explains that the Generalitat sent 2,795 documents after being requested to provide data on the reports made by such delegations. But the Court of Accounts itself estimates that more than 10,000 were drawn up, taking into account "the majority of notes that had to be made ex officio". In any case, “most” of these notes were not sent, nor “the dossiers of the numerous trips —there were 45, according to the report itself— of the members of the Government” abroad to promote the

process

.

Regarding the importance of these delegations, the report refers to the early existence of strategic foreign action plans, elaborated with supposed support from different departments of the Generalitat, but there are no or no minutes of the meetings that will be held with that delegation have been provided. reason. However, it was possible to have the planned plan for the years 2015 to 2018, corresponding to the Secretariat for Foreign Action and for the European Union, which states: “The Government is working at the time of drafting this Plan in State structures, also in those that refer to the foreign sphere ”. And among the objectives set for this project is that of "exporting and legitimizing at the international and European Union level the democratic process initiated in Catalonia and based on the right to decide."

Regarding the procedures followed to achieve these purposes, the report recounts various episodes related to initiatives without legal coverage, such as the signing of contracts with a “diffuse” purpose.

An example is the hiring of a Dutch firm between July and August 2017, by the Geneva and Brussels delegations.

The file states that "the reports that accompany the documentation sent could not justify the activity carried out", although there is evidence that between September and October of the same year a payment of 243,200 euros was made to the company hired by both delegations.

Contracts to circumvent procedures

"The processing carried out - explains the tax report - shows a splitting of the contract in order to circumvent the requirements and demands of the applicable contracting procedure." And it is added that this way "it was intended, and was achieved, bypass the administrative control systems of legality and opportunity and even the parliamentarians."

The conclusion reached by the report's instructors “the cause and the true object of the hiring was to finance the development of an illegal act which was the illegal consultation promoted by the government of the Catalan Generalitat, and, specifically, to deal with the expenses and fees received by the so-called group of electoral observers ”hired in relation to the referendum prohibited by the Constitutional Court, and whose celebration on October 1, 2017 led to the suspension of the autonomy of Catalonia by application of article 155 of the Charter Magna.

To give an idea of ​​the relevance of the work of the delegations, the report includes that the total number of activities carried out from 2013 to February 2016 and that "contain express references to their relationship with the process of self-determination or sovereignty it amounts to at least 456 ”. However, the Court of Auditors considers "the real number of activities of the delegations related to said process is much higher", since many initiatives that have been recorded "by other available documentation" and that were "linked to the secessionist process Are not mentioned in official reports.