The Balearic Islands become the first autonomous community to close its Anti-Corruption Office. PP and Vox have voted in the Balearic Parliament in favor of the elimination of this body, which leaves more than 200 files pending processing. The office will be formally liquidated within six months, but the first consequence of the approval of the law is the elimination of the position of director, Cristòfol Milan, who has attended the plenary session and has denied the accusations of politicization that the representatives have launched. of PP and Vox.
The elimination of the Anti-Corruption Office was one of the points included in a bill that also changes the transparency policy of the Balearic Islands since the income and asset declarations of public officials will no longer be public in their entirety and will become partially confidential.
The 200 files that are pending processing will be assigned to an organization dependent on the Department of Presidency of the Balearic Government, which has provoked criticism from opposition parties. The law creates the Transparency Registry as an administrative body attached to the Parliament. This record, says the law, will be reserved and, in addition, any access will be recorded.
The PP and Vox have defended the suppression of this body that was created during the mandate of Francina Armengol at the request of Podemos. Its first director, Jaime Far, promoted several investigations that affected the previous Government, such as the vaccination of senior officials before their duty or the purchase of medical supplies during the pandemic.
The two parties that voted in favor of eliminating the Office have cited this report as an argument for closing the Office. They highlight that this report did not detect any anomaly in the purchase of masks despite the fact that the National Court has opened an investigation related to the Koldo case.
The PP deputy Mauricio Rovira has accused the left-wing parties of having used this entity as a battering ram against the PP. On behalf of Vox, Sergio Rodríguez has defended the closure of the Office, which is an organization without specific functions since anti-corruption investigations are carried out by judges and prosecutors. He has defended the legitimacy of PP and Vox to close the office because they are the ones who won the elections and has pointed out that a political majority created the office and another majority suppresses it.
On behalf of the PSOE, Marc Pons has announced that his party is studying taking this decision to the Constitutional Court and has accused the PP of acting “out of revenge.” In fact, Pons has recalled that one of the matters that were being processed by these members affects to the actions of a senior Government official, the general director of Emergències, when he was a councilor of the Campos city council.
