Two former Ministers of Culture have assured that they were unaware that irregularities occurred in the period in which Laura Borràs directed the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes. This was stated by the former heads of Culture, Ferran Mascarell and Santi Vila, this Thursday in the trial for falsehood and prevarication for which the Prosecutor's Office requests six years in prison for Borràs and her friend, beneficiary of the contracts. Former Minister Mascarell, a Junts militant, who participated in an act in July in support of the leader of his party before her legal case, explained that "nobody ever" warned him that something wrong was being done in the ILC nor is he aware of it. that the General Intervention warned that the splitting of contracts was being abused.
In a statement as a witness proposed by Borràs' defense, Mascarell has assured that he put Borràs in charge of the ILC with the aim of modernizing the ILC on a digital level and that thanks to his work a step forward was taken. In addition, he recalled that the Generalitat's protocol that indicated that three budgets had to be submitted before awarding a certain job was "a recommendation and not an obligation" and he pointed out that if he was in a hurry, an external person could be hired.
Santi Vila, who succeeded Mascarell at the head of the Ministry of Culture, has expressed himself in the same sense. He has recalled that there was "no problem" by keeping Borràs as director of the ILC and has also ratified that "nobody" warned him that irregularities could be being committed in this body. "Never, neither I nor any of the directors of the Department warned us about the General Intervention," Vila testified.
Francesc Parcerisas, former director and former dean of the ILC, also declared in the session this Thursday, who has defended the work of Borràs in the organization and has specified that "nobody ever put any obstacle or complaint against Borràs in terms of recruitment. In The same sense has been expressed by his successor, Oriol Ponsatí, who was dean of the ILC when Borràs was the director.He has assured that no official conveyed suspicions that irregularities could be being committed.In addition, he has defended the work of the leader de Junts at the head of the ILC highlighting the hiring of Isaías Herrero as an external computer scientist because his work was excellent.
With the statement of the former ministers, Borràs's defense tries to counter the testimony given by the head of administration of the ILC, who in yesterday's session ratified that she had warned the then director of the institution several times that contracts were being divided and that That violated the regulations but Borràs ignored it.
Several agents of the Civil Guard who participated in the investigation into the alleged division of contracts in the ILC have testified in the session this Thursday. One of the investigators in the case recalled that "in all this procedure" they have not obtained "nothing to prove" but that all the evidence had already been collected by the Mossos d'Esquadra. In 2019, the examining magistrate 9 of Barcelona decided to expel the Catalan police from the investigation and refer it to the Civil Guard after the news of the registration of the Information Technology Center of Catalonia where the emails of Government servers. During all the years in which the case was investigated, Laura Borràs has maintained in several interviews that the Mossos did not appreciate evidence of crime. However, the Civil Guard agents have confirmed today that they limited themselves to ordering the investigation and analyzing the data previously obtained by the Mossos.
