The town clerk of Reus stated this Thursday at the Audiència de Tarragona that the municipal company Innova paid invoices to Carles Manté for years without the documentation required in his contract and after the agreement with his company, CCM Estratègies, had ceased to be valid. The contract was signed in 2007 and, according to the witness, was neither renewed nor extended in 2008 or 2009.
The paradox at the center of the trial is that the contract obliged Manté to submit monthly reports in order to be paid, but Innova continued to pay the invoices "by inertia" when there were barely two pages with a generic list of tasks. The Public Prosecutor's Office places the money paid by the municipal company at 720,120.82 euros.
The clerk traced the origin of payments without renewal or control to 2007
During his testimony, the municipal clerk stated that Manté's hiring in March 2007 was not correct because it did not follow the procedure of publicity, competition, and solvency commitment. He also pointed to Josep Prat, former general director of Innova, as the person who authorized both that hiring and that of the architect Jorge Batesteza to advise on the works of the Hospital Sant Joan de Reus.
"Payments continued by inertia and even without him having to submit any documentation for years" - clerk of the Reus City Council
The same witness explained that neither he nor the municipal comptroller were responsible for controlling Innova and added that for many years they did not prepare internal control reports due to lack of resources. That function, he indicated, corresponded to the board of directors and he cited Natàlia Torrell and Esther Ventura.
Regarding the relationship between Manté and Innova, he dissociated the fact that he was president of Shirota Functional Foods from his hiring in the municipal company. In his opinion, both matters had different objectives.
A 2012 report had already advised against another Innova operation with Shirota
In early 2012, the clerk and the municipal comptroller signed a report requested by the former mayor of Reus, Carles Pellicer, in which they advised against the capital increase of Shirota Functional Foods. The document warned of the lack of accreditation of the work plan, the viability plan, and a legal report on the expenditure.
Shirota was then requesting a guarantee of 3 million euros after exhausting a previous credit line. According to the case, Innova would have also increased its capital by more than one million euros.
Police investigation attributed unaccredited work to Manté and Batesteza
A Civil Guard agent declared at the hearing that investigators found indications that Manté was preparing reports that did not exist and that the former Minister of Health, Marina Geli, would have approved his hiring by Innova. In the same session, an email from February 2014 from former mayor Lluís Miquel Pérez to Josep Prat was mentioned.
"It makes us see that there is a collaboration from Pérez with what is happening" - instructor of the police investigation, Civil Guard
The Civil Guard investigation concluded that the work was never carried out, that documents were altered, and that there was an alleged embezzlement of public funds of about 1.2 million euros. In Batesteza's case, the Court of Auditors had already ruled that not all of his work could be accredited and that there was a double hiring with Innova and with BBATS UTE Euroconsult.
Furthermore, the Tax Agency estimates that Batesteza received about 380,000 euros through a contract with Innova and another 200,000 euros from a second contract with UTE Euroconsult. During the search of his home, agents found no physical documentation or emails to accredit the work performed.