José María Ángel Batalla, government commissioner for the DANA, has appeared at the last minute of this Tuesday to deny the commission of any irregularity to access the public function in the Diputación de Valencia, after transcending this morning that the Anti -Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has opened proceedings for its alleged falsification of a Diploma title in Archival and Libradiconomy by the University of Valencia of Valencia of 1983.
Ángel Battle has focused on providing the documentation he delivered to meet the requirements, as explained in a long statement. And he has not made any mention or explanations about the aforementioned degree, or about the allusions in some curricula to the University of Valencia or that is “diploma in archives and libraries. National Library”, as said in the dose provided by the Government when he was appointed on December 10 for the position.
“The training requirements to be able to submit” to the 1983 call of the position of career official as Technical Archive and Library Assistant in the Diputación de Valencia, “were to be in possession of the title of secondary education, baccalaureate or equivalent” in addition, merits could also be presented among which were complementary degree to the required. He contributed his title of superior bachelor and as “accreditation of the merits”, “copy of the titles of five courses and complementary formations, in addition to the title of Valencian, and accreditation of previous experience in the public function and collaborations in publications,” he says in his statement.
To promote in 1986 the technical assistant of archives and libraries (Group A2), “the only requirements were those related to the property of the square that I was occupying since 1983, present a memory and overcome a written exam.” “A process that I surpassed satisfactorily and concluded with my appointment and possession on April 11, 1986,”
The environment of the former mayor of L’Aliana, former senator and former regional emergency department with the Government of the Generalitat, chaired by the socialist Ximo Puig, had already flatly denied any irregularity in the process that at the beginning of the eighties of the last century was not as rigorous as today as today. But as the day and the veteran socialist politician, 68, with a fame of resolution and fast in his replicas progressed, remained in a silence imposed from the Moncloa, the possibility of presenting the resignation took more body. But finally it has not been so.
The commissioner has announced that he is arranged “to undertake the administrative and legal actions that he considers necessary for the truth to open and defend my name, my honesty and my honorability after more than 40 years of public service and professional career.”
However, the investigation developed by the Valencian Agency Antifraude, whose conclusions transferred to the Public Ministry, leaves many open questions around the title wielded and which is an essential part of the file. The agency maintains in a report that “the university degree that consists of its personal file as an official of the Valencia Diputación presumably is false,” according to Tuesday The world. In a curriculum released by the PSPV-PSOE at the beginning of last decade, it was alluded to Archival and Librarian studies at the University of Valencia.
The agency, which transferred to the Prosecutor’s Office, points out that a copy of a diploma was delivered that did not complete and was validated by the officials of the Provincial Corporation. The investigations began from an anonymous complaint received last April. In May, the agency’s evaluation, verification and inspection area concluded that “Mr. Ángel Batalla did not end his university studies at the University of Valencia, so the university degree that consists in his personal file as an official of the Diputación de Valencia presumably is false, since, in addition, they do not include evidence that such a degree is real”.
In addition, it points to two officials of the Diputación who, “through a negligent action in the exercise of their functions, did not perform the appropriate checks.” In this way, battle could have benefited from the recognition “of superior emoluments (salary, consolidated degree and trienniums) to those who would correspond as an official of Group D (current C2),” adds the report.
The aforementioned title was not such. At least, he was not official. The University of Valencia “offered no official degree with that denomination at that time,” said sources from the academic institution to this newspaper. In the 90s, in the change of curriculum, the diploma in librarian and documentation was incorporated, ”they added.
Ángel Battle is very critical of anti -fraud performance in his note. “It is completely surprising to have had knowledge of the existence of an alleged investigation and file of the Anti -Fraud agency through a means of communication, without having received any formal or informal notification, much less would have required me in which I understand it would be a mandatory process of audience in the course of an investigation, irreparably cutting down the principle of contradiction, my right of defense and of course my honor, which has been intended to question my honor attending only to criteria of political opportunity and ignoring all veracity. ”
And he adds about the agency chaired since last year by the Inspector of Finance Emilio Beüt thanks to the votes of the PP and Vox: “I think it is our duty to condemn this political use of institutions such as the anti -fraud agency to damage the reputation and good name of people.”
Unlike in other controversies, in La Moncloa they have taken care of this Tuesday to put their hands in the fire for José María Ángel Batalla during the day, a week after the PP deputy Noelia Núñez resigned from all her positions for falsifying her curriculum and a virulent battle is unleashed in the “and you more” war that popular and PSOE politicians maintain.
In the file that the Government facilitated over ängel, and that can still be consulted on the Internet, appears as “Diploma in Archives and Libraries. National Library” and “Diploma in Management Function of Local Administrations, ESADE”. “The Ministry has requested information and when we have the answer, we will inform with all the transparency,” the spokesman, Pilar Alegría, has limited himself when he has asked him on Tuesday for the commissioner’s degree.
The battle relationship with the Public Administration dates back, according to a report of its working life provided by the Diputación de Valencia, to 1981. After obtaining “the maximum score” in the opposition, it begins to exercise as “Technical Archive and Library Assistant” in the Provincial Archive of the Diputación. In 1983, according to the same report, he was appointed “career official” and took possession as “Technical Archive and Library Assistant, Group C”. This group only needs to have the Bachelor’s degree, then its first contract with the Diputación is legal, according to union sources consulted by this newspaper. The problem comes in 1986, when “through the Agreement of the Government Commission” of the Diputación, Batalla goes from being C to B. For this, according to legal sources, it was necessary to have a diploma therefore or a professional training 3. It would also be worth accrediting three courses in a higher degree.
The falsification of an academic title, that is, of a public document, is a crime punished in the Criminal Code with penalties ranging from six months to three years in jail, but prescribes at five years. In 1986, when the Diputación agreed that Battle went from being an official of type C a B, its president was the socialist Antoni Asunción, already deceased.
The president of the Diputación, Vicente Mompó, of the PP, has loaded against Ángel and his “continuous deception” over time and has announced that the Provincial Corporation will study to appear if a judicial case opens, in addition to demanding its resignation and the return “of what was charged for occupying a position that did not have to occupy.” Mompó has been the advance of the attack launched by his co -religionists throughout the day.
The spokesman of the PSPV-PSOE, Jordi Mayor, has come to counteract pondering Angel as “an exemplary public servant”, questioning that the filtration of the investigation of the Anti-Fraud Agency occurs “just today, when nine months of the Dana are completed” and has not even been communicated to the interested party “to claim in his defense.
