The townhall of El Ejido has (quietly) confirmed that no one single private company has tendered a bid for an independent audit of the townhall accounts with the municipal mixed services company ElSur.
You will remember that the public prosecutor has claimed that the townhall of El Ejido channeled 150 MILLION euros of public money through this company, using false invoices.
The townhall’s only response to these allegations was to offer to conduct an “independent” audit of the last two years worths of accounts. They put this out to tender, for a rather paltry 60,000€.
Not one single auditing company has bid or expressed interest in the work.
The fire at the waste recycling plant at El Ejido continues, and firemen say that the fire is expected to burn until tomorrow evening.
The fire started two days ago when a huge mountain of waste caught fire, and firemen have been unable to put it out so far. A helicopter and two fire teams have been damping down the area around the fire.
Firemen explained that due to the immense heat inside the mountain of waste, even if they extinguished the flames it would self ignite, and they are concentrating their efforts on ensure flames do not spread while it burns itself out.
It’s estimated that about 10,000 meters of rubbish is burning away, mainly recycling and garden waste.
Creamfields, southern Spain’s most important techno / dance music festival, has confirmed the final lineup of acts which will take place over next weekend (14/15 August). 32 major and minor international acts will take part.
This important dance festival takes place in Guardias Viejas, the huge beach under the castle at El Ejido. Just down the road from Chris Marshalls place (his penthouse has a great view of it if you want to rent it – some binoculars and cats thrown in at no extra cost!)
They also have some strange tent, 125m2 in size, which is air conditioned and spray misted, and is being called the Special Alhambra Tent. Details are sketchy, but it’s for the hard core dancers who just have to groove under 40ºC of heat.
About 20,000 people are expected to turn up from all over Europe and beyond.
Creamfields started in Villaricos, but local councils (including Garrucha and Mojacar) were sniffy about the idea of 20,000 long haired hippies (mainly teenagers out for a good time, and if they can afford the flight / hotel / transport to Villaricos / 65€ ticket they probably have a few extra pennies from Daddy’s wallet left to spend in local shops and bars) and closed it.
El Ejido, a slightly more go-ahead place, welcomed them with open arms and puts on extra buses, clean rooms and slightly inflated ice lollies. Still, no doubt our local mayors knew what they were doing when they kicked them out.
Mayor Enciso of El Ejido, the chap accused of stealing 150 million euros from townhall coffers has been released from Albolote jail in Granada pending his trial on a bail of 300,000 €.
Enciso was arrested last October along with 20 other people, accused of paying inflated and false invoices to a network of false companies. He has constantly been denied bail as he was considered to be a flight risk. No news yet on why the Judge has changed his mind.
He has managed to come up with the money on the same day as the Judge signed the order (how? that was quick!) and passed over a suitcase full of crumpled notes (joke!) along with his passport.
He must report to the local court on a weekly basis and cannot leave the country.
He is expected to return to his desk at the townhall where he will continue signing false invoice *cough* running his town.
Life should get interesting back in El Ejido as he starts to look for his ex-friends who ratted him out. A number of his cronies have still be denied bail.
Despite having, last month, hinted that the new El Corte Ingles in El Ejido would not open until early next year, a surprise announcement has been made: It will open on the 28th of this month!
No doubt Sr Isidoro Álvarez Álvarez is giggling at the little joke he played on the campuos of Almería.
Quite exciting. I shall send Chris Marshall to go and film the grand opening.
At yesterday’s townhall meeting in El Ejido, two workers and a union rep stripped off and ran around the townhall meeting shouting “you’ve taken everything including our underpants!”
They were protesting against the non payment of back wages to 87 gardeners employed by a subcontracter of municipal services company El Sur.
You will remember that lots of people were taken to jail after nicking 150 million of public money in El Ejido. This has lead to confusion, and non payment.
Ironically enough, some of the workers, who haven’t been paid by the townhall, are having their possessions embargoed for not paying rates back to the townhall. They, quite sensibly, argue that the townhall can take the money out of what is owed to them.
There was also a riot outside the townhall when a coachload of OAP’s were put in front of the townhall to keep the 87 gardeners out.
The twenty people arrested yesterday in El Ejido’s corruption sting by a Madrid judge -investigation ongoing since 2007, it seems- all spent a cosy night together in jail.
They were arrested in El Ejido, Seville and Madrid – and all seem to be family. Basically, it’s the:
-Mayor (Juan Enciso, the man who bankrupted El Ejido), his wife and daughter;
-José Aléman, the Interventor Municipal, (city auditor), and his wife (they got married in the Madrid Ritz in what La Voz calls a “glam wedding”), José’s brother and wife;
-Jesús Aragón, boss of several companies
-Ambrioso Cuevas, boss of several companies, his best friend Juan Antonio Galán Eslava, Juan’s wife and his daughter;
-José Amate Rueda, ex boss of Elsur (now boss of other municipal companies) with his wife along his son, two daughters and their husbands.
The scam, which El País says netted around 150 million euros over the last six years seems to be paying municipal funds for false contracts and pocketing the cash. Nice and neat. Codeword is: Operacion Poniente.
The PAL have been thrown out of the Diputación (county council) after the PSOE broke the coalition they had with them. Much shock, horror and the usual hand wringing from all sides.
About 60 National Police sealed off the townhall, twenty homes and 12 companies yesterday, while investigators from Madrid, accompanied by tax inspectors, seized documents and computers. Everything is being shipped to Madrid on orders of the Judge. Wire taps on people’s phones have been ongoing most of the year it seems, the investigation started in early 2007. This could roll on for years, although I expect Enciso will be out back running the place in a few days – he’s been running El Ejido since 1991 and the Spanish have a relaxed attitude towards corrupt public officials (the attitude isn’t so much why did he do it?, rather bloody idiot got careless).
Enciso, despite having stellar election results every year, is Not Liked – socialist newspapers across the board are unanimous in remembering him as a “brute – even ill educated” (El País). Who also remember how in El Ejido’s race riots he “ecohed the racist and xenophobic remarks by white farm owners in the area”.
I did enjoy this opinion quote in La Voz: Enciso, possibly with his head in his hands, must be remembering when he was no more than a simple young reseller of second rate fruit and veg.
Or this one: Municipal cleaners outside [the townhall] did not know if they were to sweep up the cigarette butts or the footsteps of fear marked on the pavement outside.
I’m told several other nearby cities had a marathon shredding of paperwork session last night….
So they finally caught up to Enciso. El Ejido townhall has been closed on the orders of an investigating judge and 20 staff members -including the mayor, Juan Enciso, and the councillor for urban planning- lead away in chains.
No doubt they’ll be back by Thursday, but here’s the latest:
After a recent meeting with Chris (no drink involved this time!) we adjourned to D-bar, which is his local, almost at the foot of Almerimar.
Almerimar is a nice place. Not too touristy, small enough to walk everywhere and has a range of different types of bars.
I was going to steal some photos off Chris’s site but he hadn’t uploaded any good ones, so here’s one of the rather large English breakfast Chris insisted I order.
I’m not usually a fan of English breakfasts, and hadn’t had one for about 3 years (last one was probably in Eire..), so it was a novel experience. I never normally eat until about 2 in the afternoon. I ordered it with extra mushrooms and no tomato. Since they had run out of mushrooms I got an extra tomato. Pretty good tho’.
I’m told they have a new menu, and while pretty much English “pub grub” it’s got a good range, and it’s not overly expensive.
Chris had some chips, the fat bugger. (Despite claiming on his site here that I ate them all). Look at him, squeezing on the ketchup. Disgusting (yet tasty!)
It’s run by John, a large and rather loud ginger fellow who actually speaks quite a bit of sense and speaks Spanish, and his wife, who is Russian (which lets me make a joke about how she Russians around while John enjoys a beer with us).
Nice place, while it’s a bit “benidormy” in look gets a nice mix of locals and tourists (English & Spanish!) and does a decent range of food and drink. John also takes pride in his sauce collection, and claims to have the hottest sauce available in El Ejido.
D-Bar, Almerimar
Up the top of Almerimar, right hand side almost under the cliff.
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I’m not usually a fan of English breakfasts, and hadn’t had one for about 3 years (last one was probably in Eire..), so it was a novel experience. I never normally eat until about 2 in the afternoon. I ordered it with extra mushrooms and no tomato. Since they had run out of mushrooms I got an extra tomato. Pretty good tho’.
