The shadow of alleged bribes is not new for Urbaser. The company, belonging to the ACS group of Florentino Pérez, has already been involved in other political and judicial scandals, both in other parts of Spain and abroad. And the similarities with what happened in Lanzarote are many.
In Colombia, one of the countries where Urbaser operates, the company is also immersed in a controversy that splashes the mayor of Cartagena, Judith Pinedo, and other politicians and technicians. Even, according to several Colombian media, the prosecutor asked a few months ago that these people be sent to provisional prison, for "alleged irregularities in the readjustment of rates" applied by the company. The measure was not adopted because the case was transferred to a Court in the capital of the country, Bogotá, and is currently in the investigation phase.
However, what Urbaser has already received in Colombia is a sanction of 400,000 pesos (about 170,000 euros) by the Government, considering that it was applying inflated rates to users. But in addition, in the report made by the Superintendence of Public Services, a state body that is responsible for the control, inspection and supervision of entities providing public utility services, it is warned that "Urbaser should not charge the District, as an extraordinary service, the collection of garbage in the island area of Cartagena, considering that this activity was within the initial contracting".
The story has many points in common with the one being investigated in Lanzarote by the Court of Instruction Number 5 and the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard, who consider that executives of the company paid alleged bribes to the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, as well as to other politicians and officials, related to the contract that Urbaser maintains with the City Council and that was signed in times of Déniz.
Another precedent in Orihuela
In addition, the name of Urbaser also appeared linked to one of the scandals that splash the Popular Party in the Valencian Community, in a case that more than four years later remains under summary secrecy. The events occurred in the City Council of Orihuela, where nearly 30 alleged cases of municipal corruption are being investigated, linked to urban planning and the accounting department of the Consistory. And in one of them, the name of Urbaser appears for the alleged offer of a commission of 3 million euros in exchange for the award of the garbage collection service.
The facts were denounced by one of the businessmen who was presenting to that contest, Ángel Fenoll, who made public the recording of a conversation that he himself had with one of the councilors of the City Council of Orihuela, and in which he explained that Urbaser had offered them a commission of 3 million euros to be distributed among the mayor and several councilors if they awarded him the service.
The conversation, published in its day by several media, including the newspaper El País, reflects with crudeness the practices that were allegedly being carried out in the City Council, governed at that time by a pact between the PP, the Liberal Center and a defector from the PSOE. "Yes, Ángel!, I'm telling you yes, without problems? I don't want money, I want a good electoral campaign, look how simple", the councilor, a member of the Liberal Center, tells him at one point, when the businessman proposes that he vote against the award to Urbaser, which would benefit his company.
"What I want is to meddle from behind?" "Just let's meddle a little and take a couple of Urban Action Plans of four million euros, neither garbage nor the whore that bore it", the councilor allegedly affirms in that conversation.
After receiving this complaint in 2006, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of Alicante began an investigation and transferred the case to the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Orihuela. However, the councilor who appeared in that conversation also filed a lawsuit against the businessman Angel Fenoll and said that the tapes were false. A year later, Fenoll was arrested against five other people. Among other things, he would be accused of having carried out alleged "blackmail" to public officials of the City Council with different recordings.
Despite the fact that more than three years have passed since the arrests occurred and more than four since the original complaint for the alleged bribery of Urbaser, the case remains under summary secrecy and no further information has been known about the investigation. For its part, after the scandal, the City Council declared the tender to award the garbage collection void and, although some time later it convened it again and Urbaser presented itself again, the service was awarded to another company.
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