Mariano Fuentes, former urban planning officer of Madrid City Council, has joined Vía Ágora, a company specializing in the management and development of real estate assets, as director of investor relations to deal with “new projects” in the promoter, it was reported on Wednesday in a press release from Via Ágora itself. This new possible case of a shift from politics to business is controversial, given that Fuentes, as urban planning delegate, ceded five municipal lots to Vía Ágora just days before leaving office. The municipal group Más Madrid announced this Thursday that it will report Fuentes to the public prosecutor for his “obvious incompatibility” by awarding “a €47 million contract a few days before his dismissal”. Deputy Mayor and Speaker of Madrid City Council Inmaculada Sanz has ventured that the move to private company Fuentes was made “taking into account all applicable laws and regulations”. This newspaper has tried to contact Fuentes, so far without success.
The allocation of these five plots was part of a total of 25 plots that the consistory has publicly tendered for the construction and operation of rental housing at an affordable price for a term of 45 years. They are then to expand the city’s housing stock. Vía Ágora was among the winners with plot number three, consisting of five plots totaling 8,649.17 square meters. The plots were allocated in March, but according to the contract portal, it was formalized on June 8. Nine days later, on the 17th, Begoña Villacís, one of the deputy mayor’s shop stewards, left the consistory after the constitution of the new city council, in which Ciudadanos had no representation. Fuentes was one of the Ciudadanos councilors who recurred as number three on his party’s lists in the last municipal elections, having been part of the coalition’s municipal government team.
Although Fuentes was not involved in the public tender, due to which Urban Development appointed Vía Agora as the councilor responsible for the area, he had to sign the tender file, which some experts consulted by this newspaper consider as proof of his relationship with the operation. According to the Madrid Capital Law, in force since 2006, “the incompatibility established by Article 2.4 of Law 12/1995, of May 11, on the incompatibility of the members of the Government of the country and the high positions of the General Administration of the State” applies. The above-mentioned article raises doubts about the legitimacy of the decision of the former city councillor: “During the two years following his dismissal, senior officials may not, in the performance of their duties, engage in private activities related to acts on which they have passed a resolution.” , nor conclude contracts for technical assistance, services or similar with the public administrations”.
Opposition demands that Almeida ‘don’t look the other way’
The main opposition group will take Fuentes before prosecutors for his “apparent incompatibility,” says Más Madrid deputy spokesman Eduardo Rubiño in a statement, who has asked Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida “not to look at others.” “We want the prosecution to investigate whether this can constitute a criminal offense and we also want Almeida to intervene through administrative channels. The law is very clear: Fuentes should wait two years after leaving the Office can carry out private activities related to its area of leadership,” says Rubiño. Más Madrid cites another norm, the Law on the Foundations of Local Regime, which in Article 75.8 states that those who were councilors with government responsibilities, Article 15 of the law 3/2015 of the General State Administration by allowing two years to elapse before they can work on something for which they have the competence.
In addition, in November 2022, the Council of Ministers adopted a draft law regulating the activities of interest groups or lobbies, which aims to put a stop to revolving doors. According to this rule, senior officials involved in decision-making are only allowed to exert influence in connection with their responsibility two years after their dismissal. In addition, in the Autonomous Community of Madrid there is the same period since 2016, when then-President Cristina Cifuentes adopted a code of ethics to restrict revolving doors in the two years after dismissal, but for senior positions of the regional executive.
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Más Madrid believes that the city council must “open a sanctions procedure against the former councillor, who could end up being disqualified for up to 10 years.” “Almeida cannot afford to stand out in this situation,” stresses the mayor in a note in which he blames this “new shameful case of revolving doors” because “PP and citizens see public administration as a means of earning merit before private companies with interests that do not correspond to those of citizens”. “Fuentes was opposed to rent regulation and the promotion of public rents, and today it turns out that he is being paid by a developer to which he has allocated public land for private businesses,” denounces Rubiño. The Más Madrid City Council has urged Almeida to make urgent statements, saying: “What are you going to do because, apart from the criminal derivations that the prosecutor is investigating, the incompatibility of Fuentes can be a very serious misdemeanor.”
At the moment Almeida has not commented on the news, but his number two has. “I have no more information than that transmitted in a media outlet,” Eldiario.es announced on Wednesday, “in which this new employment situation is discussed, and as far as I know the previous delegate will have done so too” below Taking into account all applicable laws and regulations,” Inmaculada Sanz explained in this regard after the Board of Directors this Thursday. “I will no longer judge without knowing the situation in detail,” Sanz decided. “The new old revolving doors. Less than a month ago, Mariano Fuentes, acting delegate of Almeida’s urban planning, not only signed the transfer of five plots of land to a promoter to allow them to do business on public land: he also made sure where they would ultimately be placed. wrote Rita Maestre on TwitterSpokesman for More Madrid.
According to the company, Fuentes, a Technical Architect from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and Civil Engineer from the European University, with an MBA from the European Business School and an Expert Public Leadership course in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Deusto, the record for the project promoter has grown a political period in which he was “responsible for the urban planning of Madrid, evolving and adapting to the needs of the city”.
The promoter also highlights his “extensive career” in the private sector, having been general manager of the Society for Technical Processing and having, among other experiences, “intensive activities” towards rehabilitation and new construction projects throughout Spain. For the President of Vía Ágora, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, “It is gratifying to have a profile like Fuentes, with his professional background, in the team that has managed to position the capital as a benchmark in terms of urban development.” planning, plus he has tremendous knowledge of the real estate sector and an extensive track record in the private sector.”
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