Noa de la Torre Valencia

Valence

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 13:17

  • Hacienda Mazón puts the scissors in the public sector with the suppression of up to six inactive companies
  • Politics Ximo Puig's government awarded public contracts worth €876 million in five years

"The situation is critical." This is the summary that, in the opinion of the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, summarizes the state of the Valencian instrumental public sector inherited from the previous Council of Ximo Puig. The Valencian government of PP and Vox thus points against the conglomerate of companies, organizations and public foundations that the previous left-wing executive fattened and that, according to Mazón, served to protect up to 4,000 contracts without the approval of the Treasury.

Specifically, the PP leader denounced at a press conference the uncontrolled increase in the public sector workforce. "The Intervention of the Generalitat certifies that in 2021 alone, 4,000 personnel were hired without authorization by the Directorate-General for Budgets," he warned. In fact, Mazón clings to the reports of the audit bodies of the Generalitat - the Intervention itself and the Audit Office - to sound the alarm and commission a "general audit" of the public sector that will include not only an operational one, but also a "forensic audit".

"This is a technical procedure to detect possible cases of fraud and uncontrolled spending, and consequently demand administrative and criminal responsibilities that may have been incurred," said Mazón. An audit of this type, in fact, seeks to investigate possible criminal activities, so Mazón has not ruled out going to court.

To support his accusation against the management of the previous government, the president of the Generalitat has given the example of the public company that manages emergencies, SGISE: "It tried to sneak 1,800 public jobs at the gates of 28-M, although it remained tentative," he said. In the public sector as a whole, the workforce increased by 35% and expenses soared by 47%, from payroll spending of €400 million in 2015 to €600 million in 2022.

Mazón also spoke of "invoices in drawers, hand-picked contracts, unauthorised personnel, uncontrolled expenses or bank transfers without an identified owner" that have revealed "technical reports, not political ones". In 22 public entities out of a total of 48 "high risk is detected in the area of payment control", he insisted, to throw a suspicion into the air: "Did the Botànic know to whom he made the transfers?"

Ximo Puig's party has not taken long to respond to him. The socialist spokesman in the Cortes, José Muñoz, has regretted that "the great reform of the public sector of Mazón translates into eliminating six inactive entities with a total saving of zero euros", while accusing him of "wanting to create a smokescreen in the face of the imminent sentences to leaders of the Popular Party".

In parallel to the audits, the Council will approve the elimination of "six shell companies", in the words of Mazón. As this newspaper has already advanced, these are inactive entities created by the previous government, without staff or budget, "whose functions have already been carried out by other directorates-general", as justified by the president.

These are the Valencian Energy Agency, the Agency for Digitalisation and Cybersecurity of the Generalitat, the Valencian Agency for Food Information and Control, the Valencian Agency for Waste and Circular Economy, the Valencian Agency for Climate Change and the Valencian School of Public Administration.

"We are facing a bottomless pit of hand-picked contracting," criticised Mazón, who has put figures to the "open bar" of Puig's executive: 92% of the public sector does not carry out public procurement procedures in accordance with the law, while in the last four years the public sector awarded 254,122 contracts for an amount of 713 million euros. According to data from the Generalitat, minor contracts amounted to 159 million euros, and another 554 million were for expenses without a contracting file.

"It's time to tell the truth to the citizens," said Mazón.