Government fines external company managing 112 emergency hotline
Serveo offered inadequate translation services for non-Catalan or Spanish speakers
Serveo offered inadequate translation services for non-Catalan or Spanish speakers
Task outsourced to Ferrovial will come under the authority's control after €19M investment
Machine created by Catalan company Picvisa and Ferrovial Servicios already being pilot tested
All the parties in the Catalan chamber except from governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ urged former Catalan President, Artur Mas, to appear before the Parliament over CDC irregular funding. He will have to do so after the main figures accused in the ‘Palau Case’ assured that former CDC, now renamed as the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT), received commissions from Ferrovial construction company in exchange for public contracts and with the intermediation of ‘Palau de la Música’. Indeed, Mas was head of CDC at the time when the alleged corruption took place. Pro-independence radical left CUP consider it “a fiction” to separate CDC from PDeCat and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) have called for Mas to quit his political career if the accusations over CDC irregular funding prove to be true.
The day after the judge ended his investigation and stated he believed the governing party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) had earned 5.1 million in an influence peddling case, the party’s leader and President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, talked in front of the Catalan Parliament. Mas stated that the judge’s suspicions about CDC were “not proved” and he underlined the trial had not started yet. The Catalan President said he believed in the word of the party members involved in the scandal. However, he also stated that, if at the end the suspicions are backed up with proofs, he “will be the first one to act” as the party leader. The opposition parties asked Mas for further explanations.
CDC fully denies the accusations. The judge investigating one of the major corruption scandals in Catalonia, the so-called ‘Palau’ case, has finished the four-year investigation and now the trial can start. The judge accuses Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) – the Liberal party within the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition CiU – of having illicitly received €5.1 million from the construction company Ferrovial through donations made to Barcelona’s Palau de la Música concert hall. The judge believes the money was allegedly given in exchange for the allocation of public work contracts. The former treasurer of CDC and a former Catalan MP, as well as two managers of Ferrovial are accused. In addition, the judge will also bring to trial the main managers of the Palau de la Música, Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull. Millet and Montull are also accused of having stolen €26 million from the cultural organisation.
After a four-year investigation, the Public Prosecution Office – which comes under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Ministry of Justice – is accusing Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC), the main force within the two-party coalition Convergència i Unió (CiU) which runs the Catalan Government, of having received €6.6 million in “illegal commission” from the construction company Ferrovial. CDC immediately denied the accusations, stating they have never received hidden money, not the party or its think-tank, the CatDem Foundation. In addition, they lamented the fact that the Public Prosecutor is basing the accusation “on speculations and mere conjecture” and that “it is not backed by any evidence”.
The airport is the largest in Catalonia and one of the most important in Europe. The requirement for competing companies is extensive experience in airport management and significant financial stability