The PP takes to Antifraud 629 payments "without contract" from Morella to companies linked to Francis Puig since 2015

VALENCIA, 3 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PP has presented this Monday at the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency (AVAF) a total of 629 payments for more than 408,000 euros "without a bidding or contracting process" by the Morella City Council (Castellón) to companies linked to Francis Puig -brother of the 'president' of the Generalitat and former mayor of the town- between 2015 and 2023, the eight years in which Ximo Puig is in charge of the Valencian government.

"When Ximo Puig was mayor of Morella -between 1995 and 2012- he acted with absolute impunity giving aid to his brother and, most likely, the current mayor -the socialist Rhamsés Ripollés- has maintained the way that Ximo Puig had to benefit his family through the media."

This has been denounced by the PPCV campaign spokesman, Miguel Barrachina, before registering the complaint in Antifraud together with the 'popular' spokesman in the Morella City Council, Jesús Lecha, precisely while Ximo Puig has presided over the extraordinary plenary session of the Consell to convene the regional elections of 28M.

Barrachina has warned that they are "minimum amounts because there is a good part -of the money granted by the City Council to companies linked to Francis Puig- that will probably have managed to mislead through this framework". They are invoices, he has pointed out, for recordings of plenary sessions, advertising spots or appearances in the media.

It has demanded that Antifraud open an investigation file and has once again urged the Generalitat Intervention to deliver the audit reports requested by the Investigating Court 4 of Valencia in the process opened for alleged irregularities in regional public aid granted to related companies Francis Puig, administrator of Comunicacions dels Ports SL and Mas Mut Producciones SL, and the Adell Bovells.

"The Morella City Council has become an example of how public funds are mismanaged," added the municipal spokesman, who assured that since Puig became 'president' "his brother's companies have gone from being in numbers reds to multiply their income by two or three".

Moreover, he has stated that the mayor of Morella "always" has answered "very sincerely" to his requirements about these payments that "there is no tender" because they do not want to work with companies other than those linked to Francis Puig. "At the end of the legislature is a good time for Antifraud to clarify it," he urged.

In the complaint, consulted by Europa Press, the PP claims that it has found a total of 547 invoices for 369,637.68 euros approved and paid by the Morella City Council between 2015 and 2023 to the commercial companies Comunicaciones dels Ports SA and Mas Mut Produccions SL without "some contractual procedure".

In addition, it maintains that Morella paid those years 38,448.58 euros in 82 invoices to the public companies Societat Center Integrat de Serviceis Económics, Societat de Promoció Económica SA, Iniciatives Turistices Morella SL and Carns de Morella SL; "all of them without formalization of contract or any contractual procedure".

The 'popular' affirm that, added as a whole, the repetitive invoices with a similar object, annually exceed the threshold of 15,000 euros for the minor contract, with which they understand that the Morella City Council should have resorted to the bidding procedure in these cases .

They also point out that "by examining the invoices, the possibility that some of them appear duplicates can be verified", since "the concept that justifies an invoice is repeated identically in another presented to the City Council or to one of the public companies".

Consequently, they denounce, "it follows that everything was done consciously and voluntarily with the sole purpose of avoiding the corresponding

contracting procedure and thus benefit the companies of Francis Puig".