Antonia Cervera, popular former mayor of Monforte del Cidaccused Forgery of documents, embezzlement, lying and illegal appointments, at the hearing in the Alicante Court this Wednesday, denied the accusations and assured that he had not made any irregular appointments during his 12 years in the Mayor’s Office. Cervera stated that the appointment of Santiago de Munck, the defendant in the same case, first as the secretary and auditor of the Consistory, and then as the director of Municipal Services, was done within the framework of the law. At least that’s what he thought because, as he noted, “I have always trusted the professionalism of the employees City Council” and ““No one” warned him of any irregularities.
Antonia Cervera is on trial in the Tenth Division of the Court together with the former intervening secretary of the Municipal Council of Monforte del Cid. Santiago de Munck, and both face three and a half years imprisonment from the Prosecutor’s Office each for the crime of falsification of documents in competition with the crime of improper appointment and separate fines and disqualification for two, as this newspaper has previously reported. illegal appointment crimes and another one evasion crimes.
HE Monforte del Cid City HallConducting the private prosecution, A total of 24 years in prison is requested for each of them.fines and disqualification for almost a dozen charges of falsifying documents, illegal appointment to public office, embezzlement of public funds and evasion.
Legal liability
While the prosecutor’s office did not request civil liability compensation because there was no evidence that the former secretary did not serve in the positions he held, the City Council claims that the defendant filed a criminal complaint. Compensation with 222,166 euros plus interest, corresponding money salary supplements The City Council believes Munck was paid fraudulently between 2003 and 2016.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office argues that the defendant did not make any publicity or transparency for Santiago de Munck to take the position of temporary interventionist secretary in the Municipal Council of Monforte del Cid at different periods between 2009 and 2015, and therefore did not provide any information to the municipality. Allegedly, the Generalitat failed to monitor the legality of the procedures and deliberately concealed the decisions taken without informing the municipal general assembly.
In this way, the defendant would have done the job without having the qualifications for the position created and without obtaining it through a selective procedure, and this would have violated the contract. Principles of merit, capacity, equality and promotion. The position was announced on a Friday in June 2003 and given to the sole candidate, now the defendant, on Monday.
Former mayor and former secretary only answered their own questions defense lawyers, Ignacio Gally and José María Buenorespectively and both denied the improprieties attributed to them. anti-corruption prosecutor Felipe Briones, and the Monforte del Cid City Council, which conducted the special investigation. Attorney Alejandro Bas from the law firm Francisco Ruiz Marco. The accusation is also made by a lawyer who feels he has been harmed by the position of general administration technician given to the former secretary, who is now on trial.
Antonia Cervera denied that she had a personal interest in De Munck’s hiring, stating that she did not receive any benefit “neither from this appointment nor from any other during the years that I have been on the City Council.” In fact, she said, she now demands a fee. subsidy of only 460 euros.
On the other hand, he stated that he did not write the decisions and signed them. Trusting that “everything is legal”. He concluded his statement by saying that he had handed over his staff area to another popular councillor, and that was why he had told him this.”“He wanted to earn the same money as me and needed to put his daughter to work.”
Santiago de Munck to Monforte Community of Madrid, where he was a popular councilor Through a nephew who was a councilor in the municipality of Medio Vinalopó. Suspect refused to wear it He stated that during his recruitment, the three-day period between the announcement of the position and the awarding of the award did not seem strange to him. On the other hand, another secretary who later joined the City Council also questioned the legality of the process.
Plays
Regarding his subsequent appointment Municipal Services Manager He stated that a council member wanted to give the place to a friend, and regarding the giving of more than one work to the same company, he stated that the company had previously worked for the City Council and that 7 of the works belonged to this company. Six of them are signed, and the other is a person who is not criminally responsible, although it is the same fact. De Munck denounced Cervera’s suffering following his departure from the Mayor’s Office “humiliations and disqualifications» Because, according to the defendant’s statement at the hearing, he agreed with the company that made the specification and opposed illegal transactions such as giving an additional fee of 5 million euros to the municipality.
verbal appearance The trial will continue in Court this Thursday, and among the witnesses who will appear before it is María Dolores Berenguer, the current mayor of Esquerra Unida.