The fourth section of the Girona Court has started this Wednesday the trial against the mayor of Vidreres, Jordi Camps, for the alleged illegal appointments in the Local Police between 2020 and 2021. In the dock also sit the then inspector of the force and two officers who ended up being promoted in a procedure that the Prosecutor's Office considers irregular.
The public prosecutor's office requests for Camps 14 years of disqualification from public employment or office for a continuous crime of administrative malfeasance. For the then inspector, it requests 10 years of disqualification for the same crime. In the case of the two agents who benefited from the appointments, the prosecution attributes to them a continuous crime of accepting an illegal appointment and demands for each a fine of 3,600 euros and 3 years of suspension from public employment.
A complaint over some promotions under suspicion
The case stems from the complaint filed by lawyer Benet Salellas on behalf of a local police officer who considered himself harmed by the appointments made to replace the inspector. The accusations maintain that the four defendants acted in common agreement to avoid public tenders and place two officers as corporals.
The Prosecutor's Office maintains that action was taken to circumvent current legality and avoid the controls inherent to a public appointment procedure. In its brief, it places one of the keys in the report issued by the then inspector on September 15, 2020, in which it argued that it was urgent to enable two active agents to assume corporal duties, despite the fact that, always according to the prosecution, both did not meet the seniority requirements and there were other police officers who did meet the conditions required by the regulations.
The public prosecution also attributes to the mayor a decree signed on August 18, 2020, to appoint those two agents as corporals of the Local Police, completely and absolutely disregarding the established legal procedure. One day later, he signed another decree to approve the inspector's service commission, which came into force in mid-September of that year.
Warnings of the municipal secretary
The Prosecutor's Office maintains that the first warning about the irregularity of the procedure arrived in early September 2020 from the municipal secretary, who warned that the decree was null and void. After that warning, the mayor issued a new decree reviewing the previous one and agreed to suspend the execution of the appointments of the corporals.
However, the complaining agent has declared this Wednesday that, despite that suspension, the two police officers continued exercising command functions.
"They ordered and commanded" - complainant agent
The case adds a new episode on October 8, 2020, when the mayor issued another decree to reorganize the Local Police and appoint one of the agents as the new head of the force. The Prosecutor's Office understands that this appointment was also made without the legally required procedure, which required a public call and a competitive examination system.
At the end of October 2020, the municipal secretary again warned that it was necessary to call for a competitive examination to fill the headship. Despite this, the prosecutor maintains that the mayor persisted in his will to appoint the accused as head, even knowing that he did not meet the legal requirements and that the procedure used was not the correct one.
A urgent process and an annual bonus
After those warnings, the mayor called a selection process with maximum urgency for December 3 and 4, 2020. In that procedure, only the agent who finally obtained the position of head of the force participated. Later, on February 22, 2021, the mayor agreed to assign him an annual economic bonus of 12,089.58 euros for his qualification as head of the Local Police.
That prosecuted agent is still today the top official of the Local Police of Vidreres. For the Prosecutor's Office, throughout the entire process five irregular decrees were issued.
The first witness speaks of a drill
The first witness to testify has been the police officer who filed the complaint. In his appearance, he has defined the procedure as a sham call for applications and has assured that everything was aimed at placing the two prosecuted police officers as corporals.
"It was a hand-picked assignment of certain individuals" - complaining agent
According to his account, there were six candidates and only two met the requirement of having two years of seniority in the corps, and none of them were among those finally appointed. He also maintained that the maneuver was made to favor the two candidates because they were friends with each other and stated that the situation harmed him professionally, to the point that since his first complaint the entire organization turned against him.
At the hearing, the president of the works council also testified, who explained that there were doubts about the procedure and that a request was filed to demand that it be done with legal guarantees. The City Council's response, as she stated, was that they were looking for the formula to do it correctly both legally and administratively.
Other candidates who submitted their resume to apply for the position of corporal have ratified during the trial that the only ones who met the requirement of two years of seniority in the force were the plaintiff and another agent.
Jordi Camps and the other three accused are scheduled to testify this Thursday, before the procedure of conclusions and reports, in a hearing that remains under the spotlight in Girona for the management of the leadership of the Local Police of Vidreres.