PALMA
TWO former high ranking members of the Balearic government led by Jaume Matas between 2003 and 2007 were among six people to have been arrested and questioned over the past 36 hours as part of Operation Bonsai, a new investigation into alleged political corruption here in the Balearics.
The two former government members are the ex director generals of Tax and the Emergency Department, Jorge Sainz de Baranda and Joan Pol respectively. The two are also members of the conservative Partido Popular whose former party leader, Balearic President and Spanish government Minister for the Environment, Jaume Matas, is also under investigation and forced to pay three million euros bail. Leading Majorcan constructor, Miguel Felui, chairman of the Llabres Felui Group, was also one of the six to have been arrested but he was released with charges yesterday afternoon It appears that Operation Bonsai is an investigation by the anti-fraud department and prosecutors into the construction of Palma's new fire station and the new headquarters for the Ministry for Health and Consumer Affairs.
The anti-fraud prosecutors claim that both operations involved the misappropriation of public funds, administrative fraud and bribery.
Yesterday, the spokesperson for the Partido Popular in the Council of Majorca, Jaume Font, was forced to admit that this latest round of arrests involving party member and members of the former Matas government has left his party in a bad and uncomfortable situation.
Font also said that he fears this latest developments could damage the party which is trying to move forward with a new leader.
He called for immediate changes to be made in government so that the whole process is more transparent and that further action has to be taken to ensure that public funds are no longer misappropriated in the future.
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