For sake of appearance

Something must be done following the August 4th ruling by a judges’ panel dismissing a conspiracy case against Valencia’s regional premier Francisco Camps. No, I am not talking about appealing the decision – the anti-corruption prosecutors say they will do that – nor am I suggesting that the ruling is tainted. What I am asking is for Congress to come up with quick legislation that tightens the ethical laws that govern our elected leaders and make it illegal for anyone to receive gifts while in office, period.

Two of the three judges on the Valencia High Court voted not to charge Camps with conspiracy because he received fine dress suits, expensive bracelets and watches, and other gifts from an alleged corrupt network of businessmen who were involved in shifty dealings. Basing their ruling on a blurred aspect of the penal code, the panel’s majority said there was nothing that demonstrates that Camps and other Partido Popular officials in Valencia knew that these presents were intended as payoffs.

The case is part of a wider scale backhanders-for-tenders scheme that has ensnared PP members in at least three regions and six municipalities. The so-called Gürtel undercover investigation became public in February when authorities arrested Francisco Correa, a shady businessman with strong connections to the PP. Officially, Correa ran a company that organised special events for the PP governments in different regions, such as political rallies, festivals and other social shindigs. Unofficially, according to prosecutors, he made a lot of money by putting together a group of eager businessmen who paid millions in backhanders in exchange for these contracts. A Madrid judge put him in prison to await trial after determining he is a flight risk.  

The highest opposition official to be trapped in this web of subornment has been Senator Luis Bárcenas, who until last week had been the Partido Popular’s powerful treasurer.  He stepped aside from his party position, but not his senate seat, two days before the Supreme Court asked Congress to begin a process to strip him of parliamentary immunity so that the case can continue against him. Bárcenas, whose personal wealth has more than quadruple in the course of five years, is being investigated for tax fraud. The court also asked that immunity also be lifted from Deputy Jesús Merino, another lawmaker accused of getting some questionable cash.

 
It was never said that Camps got money from Correa’s network. What he did received were the fine gifts and other nice perks, including a few tickets to Cirq du Soleil, from Correa’s point man in Valencia, Álvaro Pérez, a.k.a The Moustache. This is the same man who admitted in surveillance conversations that he gave Valencia Mayor Rita Barberá nice handbags including a €4,400 Louis Vuitton model. Pérez, who is also targeted in the investigation, represented Orange Market, one of Correa’s bent businesses in Valencia. According to Valencia’s judges, there was nothing illegal about this gift-showering because the law states functionaries can receive presents so long as they are not intended as bribes. Never mind, that Orange Market received contracts to set up the Valencia’s tourism exhibition in Madrid for four years running and getting €8 million in exchange. PP lawyers argued before the judges that the contracts were always awarded to The Moustache without tenders because they knew the quality of the work he provided. The dissenting judge on the panel said there was too much of a coincidence.
 
 
Ethics among public officials are the biggest qualities in government that set apart public sectors from those in other countries. Even the Partido Popular’s Valencia mayor, as she dismissed this whole affair as whimsical, captured the public’s attention on how abusive this gift-giving tradition in Spain has gotten when she stated last month that every official from the prime minister on down receives presents. “I suspect those given to the prime minister and Cabinet officials are bigger and costlier than those given to mayors and councilors.” I usually don’t agree with what the PP says but Rita’s recognition seems pretty credible. So why do elected officials in Spain believe they are entitled to receive gifts from the people they serve? In the United States, public officials are not allowed to accept anything over $20 to avoid any questions of impropriety and legal entanglements such as the one Camps got into. Gifts by foreign dignitaries to the US president and Secretary of State are turned over to the Treasury Department where they are placed in the public’s domain. A number of these presents end up on display at Washington’s Smithsonian Institution. Spain’s ethics laws need some tightening, no doubt. No functionary should accept any type of gift from anyone, at least for the sake of appearance.