Double money payout query

DEVELOPER and businessman Enrique Ortiz was allegedly paid twice for building two Benidorm traffic roundabouts.

Police searched town hall offices after a formal complaint was lodged by former Urban Development councillor, socialist Jaime Llinares in May 2011.

Ortiz was paid €313,000 in 2002 by owners of land where the roundabouts are sited, Llinares claimed. 

He later received €1.2 million in 2009 from public funds under the Plan E scheme, according to the former councillor.  

As a result of the complaint, three officers from the UDEF fiscal crimes unit, accompanied by a clerk of the court, took away files and documents from several council departments.

A computer hard drive in the Urban Planning department was also examined in hopes of finding further information.

Police went to the town hall in personbecause documents were missing from those originally requested, according to municipal sources quoted by the newspaper, Informacion.  One supposedly detailed the alleged €1.2 million allocation.

What did appear were the minutes of a meeting when tenders for constructing the roundabouts were discussed.  Ortiz’s offer received the highest number of points, the same sources revealed. 

Another former Urban Development councillor Jose Ramon Gonzalez de Zarate, this time from the PP, has been summoned to testify as a witness on January 29 regarding the supposed double payment.  The town hall auditor and other official have also been called as witnesses.