The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The former president of Murcia discharges responsibilities on the architect and municipal technicians in the 'Auditorium case'

2022-09-27T15:47:45.627Z


He insists that the first presented his ideas "by professional initiative" and that all the money from the grant was invested in the works


In the center of the image, the former president of the Murcian Government Pedro Antonio Sánchez, at the Provincial Court of Murcia, this Tuesday. Edu Bottle (Europa Press)

The former president of Murcia Pedro Antonio Sánchez (PP) has defended this morning that all the processing for the construction of an auditorium in Puerto Lumbreras (16,000 inhabitants) when he was mayor of that Murcian municipality was done correctly, from the hiring of the architect until the request for the six million euro subsidy with which the works were financed, the modification of the project and its reception, despite not being finished.

With his statement, the trial of what is known as the Auditorium case

began this Tuesday ,

for which the Prosecutor's Office asks for him two and a half years in prison and 19 years of disqualification from employment and public office for the commission of alleged crimes of continued prevarication and fraud. .

At the beginning of the session, the prosecutor withdrew his accusation of a third crime, that of subsidy fraud, for which he had initially requested another two years in prison.

During two hours of testimony, Sánchez has tried to convince the prosecutor that he did not hire the architect Martín Lejárraga, also charged in this case, by hand and without public competition, to shape the works of the theater-auditorium that gives the case its name.

The defendant resigned on April 4, 2017 as president of Murcia cornered by accusations of corruption.

He was succeeded in office by the current president, Fernando López Miras.

As Sánchez explained in the trial, it was the architect himself who "by professional initiative" decided to prepare a "proposal of ideas" in 2006 to start up that infrastructure.

Although, according to the Prosecutor's Office, between that year and the following year the architect drew up a "preliminary project", a "basic project" and a "general execution project" for the auditorium, as it appears in numerous documents, Sánchez has insisted on defending that All these documents were presented

motu proprio

and without any municipal request, although they were presented to the autonomous community to request a grant of six million euros with which the works were carried out.

According to the former regional president, only once the subsidy was granted, the City Council called an "ideas competition" to select the project for the construction of the auditorium, which Lejárraga won.

The prosecutor has also abounded in his questions about the fact that both the location of the auditorium and its initial work project were modified for another that included three annex buildings and a garage, despite the fact that the regional subsidy had been granted for another type of construction and also in another place.

Sánchez has insisted that the entire project was drafted when the City Council had guaranteed its financing, so there was no "change".

The works of the auditorium started in May 2018 and in August of that year Sánchez signed three certifications to justify 2.25 million euros of the received subsidy.

On the signing of that and all the documents related to the project, the former leader has derived responsibilities in the municipal technicians and has insisted that the work of a mayor consists of signing and not supervising the actions of his team.

In any case, he has defended that all the funds received from the autonomous community were invested in the works of the auditorium, so there was no embezzlement.

The last of the controversies about this work lies in its reception in 2010 after the City Council drafted a modified version of the original project with which the work was considered completed, although it had been incomplete with respect to the project initially presented.

Sánchez has insisted that the work is "finished based on that modification", which was transferred to the autonomous community and was accepted by that administration.

Also accused in this trial are the architect Martín Lejárraga, who was the municipal secretary of Puerto Lumbreras in those years, Caridad García Vidal, and the manager of the construction company that carried out the works (ECISA), Vicente Gimeno, whose statements are scheduled for the next 3 October.

The trial will last until the end of November.


Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-09-27

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-15T01:29:34.271Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.