The Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office in Alicante (Fiscalía Anticorrupción) has referred to a court alleged irregularities in the management of the municipal sports schools (escuelas deportivas municipales) in Sant Joan d'Alacant, according to reports published on 30 October. The mayor, who belongs to the Partido Popular (PP) and is also councillor for sport (concejal de Deportes), is under scrutiny in connection with the case. The sources contain no confirmation from the prosecutors or the court, and the mayor's formal procedural status is not specified. The date of the referral and the court handling the case are also not given.
According to the reports, the town hall paid invoices for more than four years to the firm running the sports schools without a valid contract. The payments total more than €1.5m. The contract ended in 2021 and no new one was put in place.
Since 2021 the invoices have been paid through "extraordinary procedures" (procedimientos extraordinarios). The PP-led government several times took changes to budget credits (modificaciones de crédito) to the full council meeting (pleno) to cover unpaid invoices. Town hall technical staff repeatedly warned that the procedure was irregular and that the contracting needed to be put in order.
The case began with a complaint (denuncia) to the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office from the Socialist group on the council (PSOE Sant Joan). The complaint lists possible offences: prevaricación administrativa (knowingly unlawful administrative decisions), negociaciones prohibidas (prohibited dealings), trato de favor (favouritism), malversación impropia de caudales públicos (misuse of public funds) and fraud. These are the complainants' allegations, not established facts.
Esther Donate, spokesperson for the Socialist group, says PSOE has warned since 2023 that the service was running without a contract and has demanded a public tender (licitación). PSOE says its objections to some of the budget credit changes were not meant to stop companies being paid, but to criticise the payment procedure that was chosen.