The Supreme court has decided to confirm the five-year sanction imposed on the historic leader of the Canary Coalition, Ricardo Melchior Navarro, for hiding that he had signed for a company about which he had made decisions when months before he presided over the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The contentious judges “could not ignore that the Law” prohibits this type of revolving doors without requesting authorization and confirms the sanction of the Council of Ministers that prohibits him from being a high public position for five years.
Melchior, who among other public positions was president of the Cabildo of Tenerife Until 2013, he was appointed president of the Port Authority by the executive of Fernando Clavijo in September 2015, holding the position until August 2018. A few months after ensuring that he retired, in April 2019, he signed as a director of the Parrot Park Foundation, a company that manages a theme park in Tenerife, until September of that year with a salary of 40,000 euros per year.
By then the Conflict of Interest Office I already had my magnifying glass on the possible incompatibility. In his last year as president of the Port Authority, Melchior had given administrative authorizations to the company for a location and to put up an advertising poster at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Senior Officers Act of 2015 makes explicit in its article 15.1 that “senior officials, during the two years following the date of their dismissal, may not provide services in private entities that have been affected for decisions in which they have participated “.
The contentious-administrative chamber of the Supreme Court, as Cadena SER has learned, has just confirmed the sanction imposed by the Council of Ministers a few months later: five years without being able to be a public position. The judges remind Melchior – currently accused by criminal means – that “he could not be unaware that the Law required him to submit these statements within three months after his termination, nor that it required him to previously notify the Office of Conflicts of Interest that he intended to join the Loro Parque Fundación as a manager “.
The infringement does not go away
In his appeal, the former politician from Canary Coalition charged both against the initial sanction process and against the decision made in the last instance by the Council of Ministers, ensuring, for example, that he left office at the Loro Parque Foundation in September 2019. According to the Supreme Court, his resignation from the position of manager “did not mean that the infraction disappeared as he had already committed it, as explained in the agreement of the Council of Ministers appealed, which, therefore, does not incur in any omissionate inconsistency “.
Melchior, says the Supreme Court, also had obligation to know that he could not accept a job in a company affected by his decisions as a high public official. “Article 10.1 obliged him, when assuming the senior position, to become aware of the obligations that it entails for not remembering that ignorance of the Law does not excuse its compliance,” the judges decide with the magistrate Pablo Lucas Murillo de la Cueva as speaker.
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