Part of the Valencian economic fabric linked to the construction sector was, during the years of the real estate bubble, immersed in the B financing of the PP of Francisco Camps and Rita Barberá. And part of the emergency contracts after the DANA that hit several regions of the province of València, awarded by the current autonomous executive of Mazón, were awarded to some of the businessmen convicted as financiers of “box B » of the Valencian PP or immersed in a judicial investigation.
This is the case for a vital sector such as wastewater treatment plants and water collectors, which were seriously damaged by the effects of DANA on October 29. The Public Water Sanitation Establishment (EPSAR), dependent on the Department of Infrastructure, allocated 50.6 million euros in emergency contracts for work on its infrastructure, of which 34.2 million went to companies that financed the Valencian PP, mainly in the context of two corruption cases – the “Gürtel affair” and the “Taula affair” – already condemned by the National Court and by the Provincial Court of Valencia. In addition, another contract was awarded to a construction company that allegedly paid commissions to Rita Barberá’s brother-in-law, lawyer José María Corbín, for alleged bribes investigated in the investigation on the “Azud affair”. This latest round of hand-picked contracts is in addition to the emergency allocations to contractors linked to the financing of the “Gürtel” PP for the repair works of the Buseo dam and for the metro section that crosses the Poyo ravine.
The regional secretary of Infrastructure and Transport, Javier Sendra Mengual, who reports to Minister Vicente Martínez Mus, recently awarded emergency contracts for works on a dozen infrastructures with “major effects”. These are purifiers and collectors with damage that could not be repaired “directly” by the companies holding the operation and maintenance contracts, specifies Javier Sendra in the emergency declaration agreement. The damage caused by DANA “severely affected the proper functioning” of the infrastructure and, in some cases, left it “completely out of service.”
– The construction company Becsa SA has received an emergency contract worth 2.3 million euros for infrastructure works from EPSAR in Vilamarxant, a municipality located in the Valencian region of Camp de Túria. It is the same company which was responsible for the work, also awarded by contract, on the Buseo dam in Sot de Chera, as reported in this newspaper.
One of the shareholders, Gabriel Alberto Batalla Reigada (son of the founder of the Castellón construction company), was convicted in 2018 for electoral offenses and falsification of documents, after an agreement in agreement with the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office to confess the facts and thus reduce the sentence, within the framework of the “Gürtel case” of the illegal financing of the Valencian PP. Becsa SA, as revealed in the summary of the “Fabra 2 case”, also paid private security costs for Carlos Fabra after leaving his institutional position.
Lubasa, the old brand of the company founded by Luis Batalla, paid 200,000 euros to the “fund B” of the PP of Valencia for the electoral campaign of Rita Barberá in the municipal elections of 2007, as proven by the judgment in the separate exhibit A of the Taula case. ‘, issued by the second section of the Provincial Court of Valencia on July 30.
– The Society of Peasants of La Vega (SAV)for its part, obtained contracts worth a total of 9.5 million euros for the works of the Pinedo wastewater treatment plant and the EPSAR infrastructures in Algemesí, Albalat, l’Alcúdia and Carlet. The company, historic concessionaire of Valencia City Hall, paid 300,000 euros between 2006 and 2007 to “fund B” of the PP of Rita Barberá, according to the same judgment in separate exhibit A of the “Taula case”.
– CHM works and infrastructure obtained an emergency contract worth 2.8 million euros for work on an EPSAR infrastructure in Utiel, one of the first municipalities affected by DANA. The president of the construction company, Francisco Javier Martínez Berna, was sentenced in the context of the “Gürtel affair” to one year and nine months in prison for two electoral offenses linked to the 2007 regional and municipal elections and for one offense of falsification of documents. . His brother José Martínez Berna, director of the company, was also sentenced to the same sentence, following a compliance agreement signed in 2018 between the two businessmen and the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.
The same company, as reported by this newspaper, also obtained 4.2 million euros in emergency contracts from the public company Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) for repair works on the section that crosses the Poyo ravine. The FGV, like the EPSAR, reports to the Infrastructure Department.
– Facsa, from businessman Enrique Gimenoobtained contracts with a total value of 1.5 million euros for works in the EPSAR facilities of Benicarló, also affected by the second DANA of Castelló, and of Alzira and Carcaixent, two municipalities in the Ribera region Alta. Gimeno accepted, in the trial of the “Gürtel affair” before the National Court, a sentence of one year and nine months in prison for three electoral offenses and one offense of falsification of documents after confessing to having financed the PP in B Valencian during the elections campaign of the regional and municipal elections of 2007 and the general elections of 2008.
The businessman also granted a loan – non-repayable – to Carlos Fabra, former popular president of the Provincial Deputation of Castelló, which cost him prosecution in the “Fabra 2 case”. The Facsa company has controlled the water sector in Castelló since the end of the 19th century.
– FCC Aqualia (subsidiary of the construction giant which made donations, for a total of 60,000 euros, to the central “fund B” of the PP, as reflected in Bárcenas’ newspapers and recognized by its former president during a commission of the Congressional investigation) was awarded a contract worth 7.4 million euros for the work of the Buñol-Alborache STEP. The construction company also contributed 200,000 euros to Rita Barberá’s PP between 2006 and 2007, as highlighted in the judgment in Part A of the “Taula case”.
– Environmental Pavaguasubsidiary of the Pavasal group, obtained 426,708 euros as part of an emergency contract for EPSAR infrastructure works on the circuit and in the Cheste educational complex. Pavasal paid a total of 240,000 euros to “box B” of Rita Barberá’s PP, according to the judgment of part A of the “Taula affair”.
– The Ocide construction company It also won a €10.1 million contract for work on the EPSAR Torrent and Picanya collectors. This is a company that, according to the summary of the “Azud affair”, allegedly paid bribes to Rita Barberá’s brother-in-law, the lawyer José María Corbín, one of the main people investigated in this case, still in the investigation phase. .
Up to a year and a half of work
The damage caused by DANA to wastewater treatment plants and collectors, as regional secretary Javier Sendra Mengual explained, generated a “situation of serious danger” for “public health and the environment” and for “the integrity” of the infrastructures themselves and the health and safety of workers. This situation, affirms the senior regional official, “must be mitigated as quickly as possible”.
However, EPSAR encountered an additional problem: due to the current “conditions of inaccessibility” in certain sections of the collectors and the installations concerned, “it was not possible to determine the extent of the damage caused”, recognizes the regional secretary of EPSAR. Infrastructure, which adds that “as the proposed actions develop, new needs not initially anticipated may arise”.
Indeed, one of the contracts – awarded to a foreign company for PP financing of the work on the Quart-Benàger wastewater treatment plant (STEP) – has an estimated execution period of up to one year. and a half. The work at the Utiel STEP lasts 14 months; the Pinedo wastewater treatment plant, 11 months; collectors Torrent and Picanya, nine months; the deputies of Requena, Algemesí, Albalat, Alcúdia and Carlet six months; the EPSAR infrastructures of Vilamarxant, Buñol, Alborache and Requena-San Antonio and Aldeas de la Vega, four months, and the facilities of Benicarló, three months.
The works with a shorter estimated execution time, only one month, correspond to the Cheste circuit and educational complex.
