The Madrid City Council announces that it is opening an informative file for the 3% commission agent

Central offices of the EMT in Madrid, on April 28. Jaime Villanueva

The Madrid City Council has opened an internal file this morning on the

, revealed by EL PAÍS last Tuesday, May 3.

This was announced this Tuesday by the Councilor for Mobility and the Environment, Borja Carabante, during an extraordinary council of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) and sources from the Consistory have confirmed.

The Cibeles Palace has decided to launch an internal investigation into Pablo Pradillo, the EMT position that charged a 3% commission for helping a construction company win a project from the public company itself.

The EMT has asked this head of the EMT to give part of "how and when this contract was taken," municipal sources point out.

Pradillo will have 72 hours to answer the Consistory.

The local government takes this initiative after the Madrid Office against Fraud and Corruption decided to also activate its corresponding investigations.

The extraordinary council was held without the presence of the unions or representatives of the Company Committee.

"This has never been done," stress union sources.

The meeting, which was attended by the spokespersons of all the municipal groups - except for Vox and the Mixed Group - lasted just over an hour, according to eyewitness sources.

This council should have been held last Thursday, but Más Madrid and PSOE requested the change of day due to the refusal of the City Council to provide the documentation.

"We lack essential documentation to know the involvement of Pradillo in the execution of the contract," they stress.

Pradillo, a well-known surname in the sector

Pradillo, head of the EMT Division and son of the manager of the Regional Transport Consortium of the Community of Madrid during the governments of Esperanza Aguirre (PP), José Manuel Pradillo, received more than 150,000 euros from a Temporary Union of Companies (UTE) , led by the construction company Inesco.

According to the documentation revealed by EL PAÍS and as he himself has acknowledged, he helped the company prepare an offer to take over the reform project of the EMT Operations Center in the Fuencarral district, for which the City Council of the capital paid more than five million euros (more than six million, VAT included).

Until now, the commission agent has defended the legality of the money he received.

He has argued that there were no incompatibilities because he was on "voluntary leave" at the time of bidding for the work.

At the end of 2018, Pradillo agreed with the Municipal Company for his temporary departure from the company.

Weeks later, the public company completes the project, dated January 2019. It goes out to public tender in March and is awarded on June 14.

The worker finally returned to the EMT in September 2021, just three months after receiving the last payment from the UTE that completes the 150,000 euros.

The Madrid Anti-Corruption Office, led by Carlos Granados, former State Attorney General and retired Supreme Court magistrate, has opened an investigation into all this.

Precisely, on May 4, he sent a letter to the EMT to ask for details about Pradillo and the entire project under suspicion: “Is there proof or a sworn statement on the absence of incompatibilities that, in his case, he could have or have had? Said employee?” asked this body, among many other questions that EL PAÍS revealed last Monday.

The scandal opens a political battle

The local government and the opposition have clashed since the scandal broke a week ago in a battle over the Pradillo case.

Carabante asked the opposition party for explanations for the work under suspicion, since it was awarded on June 14, 2019, 24 hours before José Luis Martínez-Almeida took office as mayor to replace Manuela Carmena.

For its part, Más Madrid reproaches the PP for not taking any action against Pradillo after learning of the case.

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