The Parliament will have this new political year, which, since the amendment of the regulations in 2017, theoretically began on August 16, a secretary general in full powers. It has been decided by the new president of the institution, Anna Erra, from Junts, who in this way will put an end to the anomaly that meant having the position vacant for more than a year. Specifically, since the end of May 2022, when the last general secretary, Esther Andreu, resigned due to the controversial hiring of her son as an usher.
Since then, the functions of general secretary had been performed on an interim basis by the senior lawyer of the Chamber, Miquel Palomares. But Erra, elected president on June 9 with the support of her parliamentary group and ERC, wants to resolve the atypical circumstance to begin her stage with everything in order.
The previous president of Parliament, Laura Borràs, also began her mandate in 2021 with the appointment of a trusted person for the high office. The president of Junts dismissed the then general secretary, Xavier Muro, who had led serious clashes with his party during the period of Roger Torrent (ERC) at the head of the institution, following parliamentary resolutions that the Constitutional Court had prohibited – referring to the self-determination of Catalonia and the rebuke of the King -, and due to the suspension as deputy of former president Quim Torra.
Erra will have to choose from twelve possible candidates, the number of members of the body of lawyers of the Chamber at the moment, since to access the general secretary it is necessary to be part of the legal team of the institution: in addition to the three already mentioned ( Andreu, Palomares and Muro), the list includes Antoni Bayona, who served as senior lawyer from 2012 to 2018; Anna Casas, Ferran Domínguez, Mercè Arderiu, Clara Marsans, Albert Capelleras, Jan Sarsanedas, Ramon Torrents and Rubèn Ramírez, although the last two are interim, because there are two lawyers of the Parliament who are in a situation of special services, Joan Ridao and Mario Núñez, and that they could request reinstatement at any time.
The procedure establishes that the presidency of the Parliament presents to the Bureau the name of the lawyer chosen for the general secretary and the seven members (currently, two from the PSC, two from the ERC, two from Junts and one from the CUP) vote if there is they agree or not, something that is not usually a reason for further controversy. It could happen on Tuesday itself, August 29, when the Chamber’s governing body meets for the first time after the summer break.
Also at the beginning of this academic year, the Parliament of Catalonia will already have a new body in place so that the institution’s workers can report anonymously and with full guarantees the existence of cases of malpractice and corruption that occur in the area of ??the Chamber: the Internal Information System.
It is a kind of mailbox for whistleblowers and, behind it, as responsible, there will be a collegiate body made up of three people: a lawyer from the Parliament, Albert Capelleras; a representative of the Ombudsman, Jordi Palou, and a third member proposed by the Catalan Data Protection Authority, Xavier Urios. It has been some time since the designation of the three heads of the body, already present in other administrations, was published in the Official Gazette of the Parliament of Catalonia.
The creation of the mechanism to report strange practices at the headquarters of the legislative power responds to compliance with European directives and a state law that transposes community norms.
The Spanish legislation was approved in February, and in June the Bureau of the Parliament already validated the regulations of its own information system, which now becomes the preferred body for reporting violations.
With the mailbox, which will also be electronic, those who give notice will have guarantees that reprisals will not be taken against them and they will be able to formalize complaints both with first and last names and anonymously. The complaints, however, will be verified in a process where those affected can be consulted and heard.
It should be remembered that the legal services of the Parliament, in recent years, despite the fact that it is not usual, in some cases have been the protagonists of political information due to the role assigned to them by the deputies in complying with court rulings and due to the bureaucratic issues that have ended in the plan of partisan struggles.
In addition, the institution has also attracted attention and controversy for issues that transcend the decisions of politicians, such as the salaries and privileges of civil servants. “Parliament is an institution that must set an example and we must look at things rigorously. We will do the best for the institution”, said Erra when she took up the position of president.
