The Generalitat disseminates information that could increase public spending for the 1-O referendum. Following a parliamentary question of Citizens (Cs), the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government reported that between May and July 2017, months before the referendum, they paid three trips from Canada and accommodation to two representatives of the Institut de Recherche sur l 'Autodtermination des Peuples and another of ISCA-AIDC for 9,384 euros. According to a report from the Civil Guard delivered in the judicial case of the Supreme Court against sovereign leaders for rebellion, disobedience and embezzlement, these two entities were allegedly hired by the Government with the aim of seeking international observers for a self-determination referendum in Catalonia.
In this sense, some of the dates of the trips that appear in the parliamentary response of the Generalitat point out that there is a link with the contracting process of the entities. Thus, the Department of External Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency reports that Diplocat, the private public consortium that manages the Generalitat's foreign policy, organized three meetings with academic experts in which members of the Institut de Recherche sur l 'participated Autodtermination des Peuples and the ISCA-AIDC. The first one was on May 24, 2017 and the director of this Canadian institute, Geneviève Baril, attended as well as an assistant to the address. They were paid a plane ticket from Montreal and the hotel for about 4,850 euros.
In its report delivered to the court, the Civil Guard details that on May 23, 2017 there is an email received by the then counselor Raül Romeva, currently in prison after being prosecuted for rebellion in the Supreme Court, which speaks of a " Memorandum of Understanding between the Generalitat and the IRAI entity (Institut de Recherche sur l'AutodTHERmination des Peuples et les Indépendances Nationales), based in Montreal, for the latter's completion of the observation of the referendum of self-determination of Catalonia in 2017 " . The message indicated that the agreement should be closed the next day, date on which Acció Exterior places the trip of the representatives of the Canadian entity to Barcelona, and attached a draft, according to the police report. In addition, the agents stress that this agreement should sign the agreement and give "advance payment of the services of the international observer mission".
The documentation analyzed by the Civil Guard within the judicial process indicates that on May 9 there were other emails that speak of the Canadian entity ISCA-AIDC, which was intended to provide international observers for 1-O, according to the researchers. Therefore, in June 2017, the entity presented a detailed budget that was analyzed by the then representatives of Acció Exterior and Diplocat, highlighting in its internal messages that it was a "much greater" expense, since it was requested that the entity's representatives they flew in "first class" and stayed "in a high standing hotel", but that was "necessary to get a high level mission representative". The police report highlights that the members of the Government indicated that "the expense associated with this member will be higher, but it is very important for the image of the mission before the press."
In its parliamentary response now known to Citizens (Cs), the Government ensures that the second meeting of academic experts took place on June 22, 2017 and was invited, at a cost of 2,318 euros per trip from Toronto and hotel, to LLoyd Dalziel , president of ISCA-Canada. It would not be the last time Dalziel flew to Catalonia, since according to the same parliamentary response, he returned between July 24 and 28 in "the third meeting of academic experts" at a cost of 2,216 euros for the plane from Saskatoon and the hotel. The Civil Guard stressed that Dalziel, one of the 10 international observers in the 1-O, was the one who collected the most from the Generalitat, about 19,300 euros in total through four payments from July to October 2017.
Based on this information, Cs considers that it should be added to the money allegedly diverted for the holding of the referendum with these previous items from May to July 2017 in displacements. The deputy of the orange formation in the Parliament, Susana Beltrán, believes that "the money they have spent is monumental and is added" with the information they receive.
In this sense, Beltrán denounced that the Generalitat makes access to this documentation difficult and that they manage to obtain it after numerous parliamentary procedures what it considers to be an "ordeal" since "we do not understand how they can presume a transparent external action when they omit information" for her it means the violation of the regulations of the Catalan chamber. He also regretted that the director of Acció Exterior Alfred Bosch does not appear in the Parliament to "assume responsibilities and explain the public money committed by the Government of which they are heirs" since he considers that his department has lied in denying that funds from the administration were allocated for 1-O.
Beltrán also stressed that the information of the Generalitat on the trips of these representatives of Canadian entities is a sign that "they came with the expenses paid to sign the contract to have international observers" for the referendum. It considers that the current representatives of the Government should "assume political responsibilities" for the "opacity" to access the documentation of the deputies of the opposition and for the public money destined for the consultation declared illegal by the Constitutional Court.
In its parliamentary response, the Generalitat also recalls that in the public registry of contracts of the Generalitat and in the collaboration and cooperation agreements there is no agreement with the Canadian entities of the Institut de Recherche sur l'autodaterination des peuple and ISCA-AIDC .
Likewise, in a motion for a resolution presented at the Committee on External Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency of Parliament, Cs has asked the Government to report on the cost to the public coffers of the presence of several politicians, such as deputies from Quebec, Denmark or Germany between others, who attended as international observers during the day of 1-O and the days before the voting. Cs remarks that during her statement as a witness before the Supreme Court in the case for rebellion against the sovereign leaders, the former director of the Electoral Commission of New Zealand, Helena Catt, said she led a team of 12 international observers in the referendum between September and October and that charged 8,000 euros plus Diplocat diets.
Also in the same trial, former German parliamentarian Bernhard Felix von Grünberg, who participated in another group of observers and met with members of the Generalitat and the Parliament, admitted these charges from Diplocat. Therefore, the orange formation wants to know the body that hired these international representatives as well as the money that cost their presence in Catalonia for 1-O, taking into account their fees, allowances, accommodation or travel.
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