The former director of the Port of Gijón says that he warned that the El Musel works project "was not admissible"

The former head of the Port Authority makes it clear that his duties did not include "monitoring" of the works

MADRID, 17 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former director of the Port of Gijón José Luis Díaz Rato has assured this Tuesday in the trial that is being held in the National Court for the alleged irregularities committed in the award of the contract for the works of the port of El Musel, in Gijón, that he warned that the project finally chosen for the enlargement "was not admissible".

Díaz Rato, for whom the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor is interested in a sentence of three years in prison as the author of a crime of fraud and 25 years of disqualification for crimes of prevarication, explained that he issued this warning before the meeting of the Board of Directors held in February from 2004.

In that meeting, as explained by the judge in an order, "it was urgently agreed to opt for the so-called variant this sponsored by State Ports and to request the Ministry of Public Works and State Ports to contribute the aforementioned funds and the adoption, by the competent bodies, of the administrative and technical measures necessary so that the works could be tendered in the shortest possible time".

Díaz Rato has indicated that he did not participate "at all" in that meeting. "I participated as president, but I did not say anything because I had already said it months before, when Puertos del Estado raised the eastern variant. I stated my criteria and my opinion that this solution was not admissible. In this Council I limited myself to being present", has asserted.

The former director of the Port of Gijón has insisted that his proposal was variant 3C since, in his opinion, it "solved a historical problem" of the port itself. If the aforementioned variant was finally chosen, he has recognized, it is because it was "the only way to advance with an extension". "There was no other alternative," he added.

Díaz Rato expressed himself like this during the second session of the oral hearing, which focuses on the expansion works of the port of El Musel and, specifically, on the award in 2004 of the public works contract for an initial amount of 580 million of euros. It was a project that, in addition, was financed by the cohesion funds of the European Union, an aid that amounted to 247.5 million euros.

This procedure also focuses on the extra costs that were finally incurred with respect to the initial project. The approval in 2007 of the modified expansion of the port set the final amount at more than 830 million euros, contemplating an increase of 250 million euros in investment.

This second session of the trial has started where the first ended: with the interrogation of the former president of the Port Authority of Gijón Fernando Menéndez Rexach. Anticorruption requests for him three years in prison as the author of a crime of fraud and 25 years of disqualification for crimes of prevarication.

To questions from his defense, Menéndez has detailed what his duties were in office. "Directing the Council, enforcing its decisions and having a guarantee of economic control. Also everything that was representation and defense of the Authority itself. That was the objective of my function, not so much monitoring the work," he pointed out. .

Along these lines, the former head of the city's Port Authority has insisted: "The port law required that the port director be a civil engineer with 5 years of experience and was the one who had complete responsibility for the execution of the works. I had the financial responsibility but not the technical one in the execution".

Asked if he knows of another work in a port that ended with a negative liquidation of 200 million, Menéndez has been blunt: "I don't know of any, they can ask the contractors to see which ones they are aware of."

Thus, he has pointed out that he always focused on "the expansion of the port of La Coruña, which had a higher modification". "And there was no negative settlement or problem on the part of the European Anti-Fraud Office, the Prosecutor's Office or any issue", he has settled.