BARCELONA
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The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) points out that Laura Borras He could have incurred in a continuous crime of administrative prevarication, false documentation and embezzlement for dividing contracts to benefit a friend when he was in charge of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC). Once the investigation is completed, it will be the Prosecutor’s Office that will have to decide whether to send the current president of the Parliament to trial, or whether she requests the file of the case.
In his car, consulted by ABC, the magistrate Jordi Seguí points out that there are indications that Borràs abused her functions as president of the ILCa body attached to the Department of Culture of the Generalitat, by issuing “unfair resolutions” when approving the award of 18 minor contracts, with full awareness that they contradicted the public procurement law.
The objective, according to the TSJC, was to favor the interests of an acquaintance of his, Isaías H., “to the detriment of the defense of general interests.”
Something that would be shown by the emails that the then president of the ILC exchanged with her friend, in order to “defraud” the organization that she presided over, “fostering contracting of IT services», which amounted to almost 260,000 euros.
Mail between Borràs and Isaías H.
Among the communications that both exchanged in reference to the contracts, and that are relevant to the case, one dated July 19, 2014, in which Borràs transfers to Isaías H.: «As three budgets have to be made for each of the people or different companies, I had thought that we could make you present to all four, and only win one, the cheapest in the series. […]. The rest could be done with A.’s company and maybe with the Madrid cooperative. If you do your four, I’ll do the others. Do you think it’s OK?”.
A year earlier, Isaías had conveyed to Borràs his concern because he had to “have to make bills all over the place to cover all the projects, and the truth is that it seems strange and complicated to me to have to do this ‘trapi’, I know what it is, but put yourself in my place, having to confuse several people so that they make me invoices of three kilos. It would be nice if you confirmed if there is no other way to do it, let’s say, more elegant«.
Borràs replies to his friend: «the budget must remain as if you were independent professionals due to the totals that cannot be exceeded. As you know, 18,000 euros plus VAT. If they see that what has been done is to divide a complete order into different packages, it is when they think that there is an infraction. The question is to divide, then, each one of the concepts so that it is clearer that they are like parts that need to be assembled together».
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This is the second time that the judge leaves Borràs one step away from trial. The first time was last March, but the defense of the Junts policy appealed this decision, alleging that their right to defense had been violated. The court dismissed the complaint and resumed the investigation that has now ended.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism