Corrupt Ferrovial Paid Catalan Party Commissions

Published Tuesday, 10th July, 2018 | By Susan AKA Peacefull

This is the Spanish Parent Company of Broadspectrum. It appears the company is used to paying party commissions for public works contracts. Their subsidiary Broadspectrum is contracted to the Australian Government, very concerning.

https://www.reuters.com/article/ferrovial/update-1-ferrovial-paid-catalan-party-for-contracts-reports-idUSLDE67311V20100804

UPDATE 1-Ferrovial paid Catalan party for contracts-reports

Reuters Staff

* Investigation part of alleged corruption in Catalan party

* Tax office says gave documents to court upon request

* Ferrovial declines comment

Adds tax office, court comments and background)

MADRID, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Spanish builder Ferrovial paid a Catalan political party commissions worth 4 percent of public work contracts it won under its government, Spanish media reports said on Wednesday, citing documents from Spain’s tax office Hacienda.

The documents are part of a continuing court investigation into alleged corruption in Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya (CDC), a centre-left Catalan political party.

Spain’s tax office alleges that CDC received 5.9 million euros ($7.71 million) from Ferrovial FER1.MC in the form of donations to a Barcelona concert hall, Palau de la Musica, which were then funnelled to party members, newspaper El Pais said.

In return, Ferrovial is alleged to have won big contracts like the construction of a Barcelona subway line and its City of Justice industrial park.

“This is what has been deduced from documents found in a July 23, 2009 investigation which explicitly link payments by Ferrovial to winning certain public works at a regular fee of 4 percent of the budget for material implementation,” the paper quoted the tax report as saying.

“The tax office put together the documents requested by the judge and handed them over to the court,” Bruno Perez, spokesman for Hacienda, told Reuters, but declined to comment on their content or whether Ferrovial was a subject of the probe.

CDC is part of the Convergencia i Unio (CiU) coalition which ran Catalonia in Spain’s industrial north for 23 years until 2003 and is now expected to win October regional elections by a large margin, unseating the ruling Socialist-led coalition.

A spokesman for Ferrovial, Spain’s second largest builder by market capitalisation and owner of London’s Heathrow airport and Canada’s 407-ETR toll road, said the company was not going to comment.

A spokeswoman for the Catalonia’s Supreme Court also declined to comment on the investigation. No one from the CiU coalition was available to comment. ($1=.7650 euros) (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Ferrovial is only the first

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JAN 16 2018 03:01

The directors of Ferrovial, Juan Elizaga and Pedro Bonaventura, ... — The directors of Ferrovial, Juan Elizaga and Pedro Buenaventura, entering the Audiencia de Barcelona yesterday. TONI ALBIR EFE

It is depressing what the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia considers of one of the most important and international Spanish companies of the Ibex, such as Ferrovial. The group that Rafael del Pino presides over is not a medium-sized Catalan company that can easily be extorted by Convergència, but a multinational capable of winning contracts in the most professionalized markets in the world such as the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. However, it had an emetic behavior in Catalonia, according to the ruling, which summarizes the aberrant operative: “The agreement reached by the three parties, Ferrovial, CDC and Palau, was as follows: Ferrovial and CDC would agree annually and in advance on the amount of the total of public works that would be awarded to the former from autonomous or local entities over which CDC, through its members, could press to secure such adjudications, in return, said political formation would receive a percentage of the total agreed. ” It was even contemplated that if the award was greater than anticipated, Ferrovial would proceed to “pay the same commission agreed with respect to said axcess”. The role of Felix Millet , on the other hand, was “hiding through the Palau the payment of those commissions” and taking a pinch in return.

Ferrovial paid the Orfeó Català-Palau Foundation for presumed patronage more than 10.9 million euros between 2001 and 2009. “At least”, 6.6 million went to the Artur Mas party , according to the ruling. The judges see correlation of payments with, at least, four major awards in Catalonia, including line 9 of the Barcelona metro or the City of Justice.

The good news for Ferrovial is that its former boss in Catalonia, Pedro Buenaventura , and his current! Director of Institutional Relations of Ferrovial Agromán, Juan Elízaga , both accused, are acquitted. The reasons are not encouraging. In the case of influence peddling, it is by statute of limitations and in the case of unfair administration, “for not having proven an economically detrimental loss” to Ferrovial itself, a circumstance that required the anachronistic Penal Code in force at that time.

What does Ferrovial answer? His brief statement “reiterates his conviction that the awards of works in which he participated were always carried out regularly and the offer with the best economic valuation”. He adds that “the company has been oblivious to the final destination of the funds delivered to the Palau de la Música through sponsorship contracts”. The ruling states that it is not proven that Buenaventura and Elízaga acted “with knowledge and acquiescence” of the leadership of Ferrovial and its shareholders, but it is clear that the company does not distance itself from them. Ferrovial insurance pays both defenses and the company has not given detailed explanations about the flood of tests that, according to the judges, connect it to the CDC.

What is disturbing is that the first major sentence against the 3% plot affects a theoretically serious company like Ferrovial, which has never been involved in scandals in Spain or Latin America as those perpetrating competitors. So, what will other less reputable contractors have done through other roads outside the Palau pending trial? Ferrovial is only the first to fall into the, finally, former Catalan oasis .

Posted in Corruption, Multinational, Politics