The Antifraud Office of Catalonia has requested the Tarragona City Council and the municipal company Mercats to hand over all documentation related to contracts awarded to the cooperative Combinats during 2024 and 2025. The request comes within the framework of a complaint filed last March that points to a possible conflict of interest of the spokesperson for En Comú Podem, Jordi Collado.
The councilor defends his career and assures that he broke ties with the entity before taking office. Jordi Collado ceased to be linked to Combinats on June 14, 2023, a date prior to his investiture as councilor.
The councilman denies any irregularity in his management
Collado appeared publicly on Thursday to reject the accusations that question his honorability. He showed a document processed at the request of the Secretariat and Municipal Intervention that certifies the termination of his employment relationship with the cooperative. He stated that said relationship no longer appears on his asset declaration since that date.
"I do not intend to tolerate my honorability being questioned. I am not hiding from anyone" - Jordi Collado, spokesperson for En Comú Podem
The municipal official insisted that the contracts signed by Combinats with the town hall were awarded through public tender. He also criticized the comments made against him during municipal plenary sessions and linked the complaint to his recent announcement of running again as a candidate for his party.
Research intersects with market management
The matter was debated on Wednesday afternoon in the Mercats board of directors and is scheduled to be addressed this Thursday morning in the spokespersons' meeting. Collado relates this investigation to another file opened by Antifrau on contracts in the public company.
The councilor took the opportunity to point out deficiencies in the current management of commercial facilities. He criticized that, while there are problems with generational succession in the Mercat Central, the management is designing a new market in San Miguel in the Part Alta.
"Someone can always put their foot in it, but not their hand" - Jordi Collado, spokesperson for En Comú Podem
The En Comú Podem group has already requested all available information on the cases affecting Mercats. Collado warned that they will not cease in their attempt to clarify the situation against what he considers a political strategy based on discrediting.