Command of the Civil Guard says that 'Mon' carried out works despite irregularities because there was no sentence or notice from the Treasury

PP, Cs and ERC have criticized the "photo of shame" of lieutenant generals at the farewell to María Gámez

The Civil Guard Support Command, Lieutenant General Arturo Espejo, acknowledged this Thursday in Congress that works continued to be awarded to the Canarian builder Ángel Ramón Tejera, 'Mon', even after Internal Affairs began to suspect irregularities because they did not there was no firm condemnation against him nor was there any observation from the Treasury or Social Security that vetoed it.

"The truth is that it is striking", he has acknowledged before the Interior Commission, but immediately afterwards he has referred to the Contract Law that establishes the prohibitions to contract: "it has to be by a firm criminal or administrative resolution or when we collide with the Treasury or Social Security if the payments are not up to date, it is the only way to prevent hiring".

For this reason, he added that if 'Mon' decided to continue participating in contracts, nothing could be done from the Civil Guard to prevent it, since this would have meant an "arbitrariness" for which he could have gone to court, understanding that a crime of prevarication had been committed.

At this point, the lieutenant general has detailed that the legislation on minor contracts, as they are the majority of which are the object of investigation in the 'Cuarteles case', was not reinforced to request supporting reports until March 2018, with a specific instruction to that effect that was published in 2019 by the Independent Office for Procurement Regulation and Supervision (ORIESCON).

The Support Command, the same position assumed by the retired Pedro Vázquez Jarava and now the main defendant in the 'Barracks case', has begun its intervention in Congress ensuring that the Civil Guard "has nothing to hide" and is the first interested in "debugging responsibilities for unethical conduct". In his opinion, the situation hurts those who are active and "those who are most" retirees.

Espejo has defended in Congress the investigation of Internal Affairs in the 'Barracks case', citing the one hundred visits by nine technicians to barracks of 13 commands between 2017 and 2021 that detected "serious failures". In the Canary Islands alone, he added, there have been seven visits to works and another three extraordinary ones, detecting suspicions on the last visit that were referred to the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC).

For this reason, he has said that they have nothing to hide because of events for which they are "frankly hurt." In addition, he has advocated undertaking an "ambitious plan" to increase the specialization of personnel dedicated to hiring in the Civil Guard. In this sense, he has indicated that it is "one of the challenges" of the body, recalling that the investment chapter amounts to 19 million in the period 2012-2022.

Moreover, the lieutenant general has indicated that the "malfunctions detected in the works should not be attributable to the ill will of those responsible for the barracks", but rather to "technical ignorance in terms of works". In the 'Cuarteles case', in addition to Pedro Vázquez Jarava and 'Mon', the lieutenant colonel who was in charge of the Ávila Command, Carlos Alonso, is charged.

"We are frankly hurt", said Espejo in reference to the cases of alleged corruption that affect the Civil Guard, in an appearance before the Interior Commission of Congress in which the PP, Cs and ERC have criticized the photo of four lieutenants generals -among them Espejo himself- at the recent farewell of María Gámez as director of the body after the imputation of her husband in a derivative of the ERE of Andalusia.

"What we want is for everything to be absolutely transparent," indicated the Support Command, which has also stressed that the Internal Affairs investigations have been carried out "independently of the evaluations" that his predecessor in office could have made in 2017. , Pedro Vázquez Jarava, which led to the investigations being paralyzed for a few months as no crime was detected.

Espejo has reiterated on several occasions that the Guard acts "firmly" when it detects a case of possible internal corruption, stressing that the irregularities are not widespread and that, in the face of possible illegal acts, "the system works reasonably well."

PHOTO WITH MARÍA GÁMEZ

The head of the Support Command, Arturo Espejo, was one of the four lieutenant generals who accompanied María Gámez in her public appearance in which she announced that she was resigning as director of the Civil Guard after learning of her husband's accusation in a derivative of the case ERE from Andalusia. The other three were the deputy operational director (DAO), Pablo Salas, the head of the Operations Command, Félix Jesús Blázquez, and the head of the Personnel Command, Manuel Llamas.

For Cs it is the "photo of shame that only discredits the Government" and ERC has asked if the lieutenant generals posed with the director as a show of solidarity with her or her husband.

Vox has avoided questioning the lieutenant general and the PP deputy Jaime Mateu Istúriz has also said that Espejo should not have appeared in Congress. The latter, moreover, has recognized that "this image should not be repeated" with Gámez, since what the Executive wants is to "divert" attention from the "Meditor case" and "cover up the dirty case of 'tito Berni'."