The investigation into the allegedly irregular contracts in the Altafulla City Council (Tarragona) has in focus various officials and former officials of the defunct Initiative for Catalonia (ICV) and the Communes. One of them is Salvador Milà, who was a deputy in the Parliament and also Minister of the Environment during the first left-wing tripartite government, which was chaired by Pasqual Maragall. A judge from El Vendrell (Tarragona) has left Milà one step away from the dock for having charged more than 37,000 euros in direct contracts for “legal advice” that should have been put out to public tender.
The investigation focuses on the last years of Fèlix Alonso’s mandate (2011-2019) as mayor for Alternativa per Altafulla, the Comuns brand in the municipality. Starting in 2013, the council contracted external legal advisory services to companies whose managers had a clear political link with the party: in a first phase, Milà Advocats (managed by Salvador Milà) and, later, Sinergia, a consultancy managed by Joan Herrera (former coordinator of the Initiative for Catalunya Verds) and Joan Ignasi Elena, now a deputy for Esquerra but then without a party after leaving the Partit dels Socialists.
Herrera, in a telephone conversation, has ruled out being involved in any illegal activity and has insisted that the events investigated by the justice system occur after his employment relationship with Sinergia. The former ecosocialist deputy recalled that he left that company in July 2018, when he was appointed General Director of the IDAE, Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving.
In the order in which she sees sufficient evidence to send five people to trial, including Milà, the judge discredits the “political link” between the mayor and Milà, since “both belonged to the ICV-EUiA party” and were “candidates to be elected deputies to the Parliament.” The same can be said about the relationship with Herrera, who was, remember the resolution, “national coordinator” of ICV between 2013 and 2016.
The investigation, led by the Mossos d’Esquadra, began in the summer of 2023. And it has confirmed that the legal advice hired by the City Council was a “recurring service” and, therefore, should have been submitted “to a public tender” and not processed as minor contracts over time. “The principles of advertising and competition were not respected,” but rather the same supplier was contracted “in a crude manner” over the years. The contracting rules had to be “known” by both the councilors and those responsible for the companies, lawyers “dedicated to public contracting matters.”
The collaboration with Milà Advocats began in 2013, which until 2016 issued invoices for almost 5,000 euros without a contract. Later, this contract was formalized through direct award and the office received, in 12 invoices, almost 32,000 euros more. In 2017, the Altafulla City Council began to hire, for the same services, Sinergia, a consulting firm that included Joan Herrera and Joan Ignasi Elena. The latter would later join Esquerra Republicana and would come to perform the task of Minister of the Interior in the Government of Pere Aragonès. Sinergia collected, until 2019, a total of 25,000 euros.
The order that ends the investigation and sees signs of a crime is directed against five people: Milà and his partner in the office; the Urban Planning councilor at the time, María Luisa Mández; and Herrera and a Sinergia administrator. The defenses have asked that the case be closed and now the Prosecutor’s Office must decide whether to request penalties for the accused.
The procedure, however, has been divided into three parts. The judge sent the part that corresponds to former mayor Fèlix Alonso to the Supreme Court, which opened proceedings, due to his status as a member of Congress (he is a deputy in Congress). The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has done the same in the case of Joan Ignasi Elena, deputy in the Parliament. This court has also taken up the case against Herrera due to his direct connection with Elena (both were responsible for Sinergia), despite the fact that he currently does not have any political representation. The remaining four investigated, including Milà, will remain in El Vendrell.
