The president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, has agreed to dismiss a high-ranking official in her government, the general director of Coordination and Transparency, Jaume Porsell, after learning that he lied to the tourist authorities of Mallorca to try to speed up the opening permits of a agrotourism in Andratx of which he is the owner. Porsell hid that he did not have the necessary documentation to obtain the permits.
The president had until now defended the high-ranking official, but his situation had become unsustainable after it was learned this Wednesday that he presented a Responsible Declaration for the Start of Tourist Activity in which he lied: he assured that he had all the licenses when he did not, since he Both tourist permits and authorization to change the use of the home were missing.
The controversy over agrotourism has been going on for days, when it became known that its establishment was advertised on tourist rental platforms without having all the permits. The general director assured that he did not know why it was announced. There were also various signs installed in the municipality with instructions to go to the establishment with authorization from the Andratx City Council itself, also governed by the PP, like the Government.
The president had until now defended the senior official by ensuring that he was not the administrator of the company and that he had not marketed the establishment while waiting to obtain the license. The Consell de Mallorca, also in the hands of the PP, is the institution that has powers in tourism management. She sent inspectors to verify the senior official’s claims and confirmed that no tourists had stayed, but the inspectors verified that the responsible statement included falsehoods and was irregular.
The Department of the President, to which the senior position depends, has communicated the dismissal of the general director because this circumstance is “incompatible” with the exercise of his position. In addition to being general director of Coordination and Transparency, the dismissed senior official presides over the Public Ethics Commission of the Balearic Islands.
The opposition had requested the dismissal of the general director due to all these circumstances and now wants the Consell de Mallorca to file a complaint against Porsell for falsifying documents and fraud against the administration due to irregularities in the processing of permits. At the moment, the Consell has opened a disciplinary file against the dismissed position. He is the second senior Prohens official to be dismissed in less than a year due to various scandals. A few months ago, another senior official, Antonio Serra Ferrer, who was accused of sexual assault, was dismissed.