The president of Navarra has dismissed the general director of Public Works of the Foral Community, Pedro López, after the suspension of the modification of the duplication works of the Belate tunnels decreed by the General Intervention of the Executive itself. The award of that work fell to Acciona and Servinabar, the small company in which the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE Santos Cerdán owned almost half of the shares, according to the Central Operational Unit (UCO).
The appointment of the replacement for Pedro López, who had been in office since 2019, will be undertaken as soon as possible, as indicated by the regional Government in a note. The dismissal has already been communicated to the groups that support the Chivite Executive of the PSN.
The Government of Navarra has announced that it will introduce improvements in the management of the Belate tunnel works, including a change in the project management and direct supervision by the Intervention Service of the Department of Economy and Finance. In this way, as reported by the regional Executive, a mechanism is established for greater control and better coordination, essential for a work of such complexity.
After learning of the dismissal, the president of UPN, Cristina Ibarrola, assured that the dismissal “is an explicit recognition of the signs of corruption surrounding the awarding of the Belate tunnels and that at UPN we have been denouncing from minute one.” In a statement, Ibarrola has held Chivite directly responsible for “the shadow of corruption” that surrounds the duplication of the Belate tunnels and the extra cost of the work. “Chivite opened wide the doors of the Palace of Navarra to Cerdán, allowed him to roam freely, and, to this day, is still unable to explain how his Government awarded a 76 million euro project to Cerdán’s company,” he criticized. In that sense, he has described as “absolutely insufficient” the dismissal of the general director of Public Works, Pedro López. “López has only been the scapegoat that Chivite has used to please his partners and evade his own responsibility. He has not even explained why he is being fired,” he stated.
