The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has filed a complaint against the five members of the board that assessed the awarding of FM radio licenses, considering that they could have incurred a possible crime of influence peddling, according to eldía.es.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the evaluation board approved criteria on April 8, 2011, to score that "were not foreseen in the published bases and that were approved after the submitted offers had been opened. Thus, according to eldía.es, the prosecutor considers that it could have "knowingly benefited some candidates and openly harmed others, who, had they known them beforehand, would have modified their offers." The Prosecutor's Office also highlights that "a few bidders who have concentrated most of the licenses" could have been particularly benefited.
The prosecutor recalls that the tender was called on July 28, 2010, and that it was on January 31, 2011, when the offers submitted by each of the bidders were opened. However, in April of that year, and after the offers had already been opened, the evaluation board approved "criteria relating to the emission and programming proposal", as well as "economic and structural criteria of the applicant". In fact, the legal representative of Radio El Día had already warned that some of the offers had been created after the opening of envelopes.
That is why the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, according to eldía.es, has summoned the five members of the evaluation board to testify as defendants: Fernando Ríos Rull, Manuel Almeida Peña, Cándida Hernández Pérez, David Berceo Toledo and José Luque Brito.
The Prosecutor's Office has also requested that the Vice-Ministry of Communication and Relations with the Media of the Government of the Canary Islands be required to provide a copy of the administrative file that led to the awarding of FM licenses. It also requests a report from the Judicial Police Brigade of the computer crime section, in order to verify if any of the offers that were awarded were made after the opening of the envelopes.
