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Date Published: 06/03/2023

ARCHIVED - Former regional president of Murcia sentenced to three years behind bars

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Pedro Antonio Sánchez has been found guilty of fraud in relation to the Puerto Lumbreras Auditorium

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Former regional president of Murcia sentenced to three years behind bars

The Provincial Court of Murcia has sentenced the former president of the Region, Pedro Antonio Sánchez, to three years in prison for two crimes of prevarication. He must also pay a fine of 3,600 euros and is banned from public office or employment for 17 years and three months for his part in the Puerto Lumbreras auditorium scandal.

In the same ruling, his ex-secretary Caridad G. Vidal and architect Martin Lejarraga have been disqualified for 15 years and six months and 16 years and six months, respectively.

Sánchez’s first conviction is in relation to hiring the architect “verbally and without any previous record of contracting” to work on a number of public projects that were subsidised by local corporations.

His second crime of prevarication occurred once the subsidies had been granted. Sanchez and Lejarraga worked together to alter the building plans of projects where “technical and economic infeasibility” had been proven. Their doctored paperwork sought to justify the subsidies and prevent them having to reimburse the funds, even if this meant leaving the municipal work unfinished.

However, the former regional president was cleared of fraud charges against the Public Administration.

The councillor’s house of cards came tumbling down back in 2006 when he drafted in architect Martin Lejarraga to work on the Puerto Lumbreras Auditorium Theatre, which was to be built on the Southeast Bank of the Rambla de Nogalte. As before, no other contractors were given the opportunity to work on the project and Lejarraga’s involvement wasn’t approved by the City Council or the College of Architects.

Once the subsidies were agreed, former secretary Caridad G. came on board, whose handling of the project “seriously failed to comply with her legal obligations,” according to the judge. Among other oversights, she failed to disclose the fact that there was no contracting file for the Puerto Lumbreras project and neglected to highlight the fact that no legal or technical report existed for the land the auditorium was due to be built on, which would have clearly shown that the plot was unavailable.

When the first funds from the 6,000,000 euros were made available in December 2006, no land had been secured for the building and no contracts of any kind had materialised.

Following a complaint from the College of Architects in Murcia, the major hastily put the works to tender to give the impression that everything was above board, but it was too little too late and the court saw the move for what it was: “an attempt to demonstrate an apparent legality, but a clear and gross violation of the regulations.”

“Pedro Antonio Sánchez and Caridad G. Vidal did everything possible to prevent the free participation of professionals in the contest,” the lawyers added, and all three of the players were found to share the same criminal responsibility.

In other news: Corvera is recognised as the Best Airport in Europe with under 2m passengers

Image: CARM

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