Sa Unió de Formenterathe coalition formed by Partido Popular and Compromís, maneuvered at the beginning of the current legislature to appoint the former president of the PP and president of the Hotel Association of Formentera, Juan Manuel Costa Escanellas Payaas representative of theConsell de Formentera in the Board of Directors of the Port Authority of theBalearic Islands. Port Authority of the Balearic Islandsdespite having direct and indirect port interests in the port of La Savina.
Not surprisingly, Costa Escanellas Paya had submitted to the contest that resolved the Temporary Occupancy Authorization (AOT) of the Levante dock that finally fell on the side of Sustainable Ports and Coasts and that exploits it under the trade name of Port Formentera. This is the same company that manages the gas station and the dry marina in La Savina and the former facilities of the Yacht Club of Ibiza under the name of Port Nautic Ibiza. Costa Escanellas entered the tender for the operation of the moorings that at the end of the season will be part of the unified concession of La Savina, despite the opposition of Sa Unió, GxF and PSOE, with the company Formentera Future Investments, SL.
Cordoba halts Costa Escanellas appointment
The then president of the institution, Llorenç Córdoba, aborted the operation designed by the then president of the PP, José Manuel Alcaraz. It was Cordoba himself who occupied during the first months of the legislature the remunerated position of member of the Board of Directors of the APB, as had been the norm in the institution. In fact, there are no known cases of a council appointing a businessman as its representative on the Board of Directors of the APB, as Alcaraz intended. In the midst of the crisis, Sa Unió removed Cordoba from office by the only councilor who remained in the island government, the holder of the Tourism portfolio, Artal Mayans.
Sa Unió’s links with La Savina
The frustrated appointment of Costa Escanellas is not the only link that Sa Unió maintains with the port of La Savina. Not in vain, the president of Compromís and vice president of the Consell, Javier Serra, is a partner of Ángel Bustos in Marina de Formentera, SA, former concessionaire who will sit in court for not vacating the facilities and who maintains the concession of an office building. Although he did not renounce his participation and would have breached the Law of Incompatibilities for almost a year, Serra was politically responsible for letting expire the environmental processing of the Special Plan of the Port of La Savina without today has given a single explanation of the reasons behind this operation. I mention this, with the approval of the opposition, since no one has even claimed political responsibility, so much so that this issue was surprisingly ignored from the report of the Ethics Commission that was part of the operation designed to overthrow Cordoba.
New appointments
Although the name of Juan Manuel Costa is behind the controversial license of legalization and reform of the restaurant El Caminito, Sa Unió had proposed him as one of the 160 representatives of the island institution proposed by Sa Unió to collegiate bodies. The appointments were knocked down by the opposition after criticism by Llorenç Córdoba in the Plenary. Costas Escanellas was the proposal of Sa Unió to represent the Consell de Formentera in the Social Council of the UIB and the Economic and Social Council of the Balearic Islands.
The shadow of Alcaraz
The vote against the appointments came, however, because of the presence of José Manuel Alcaraz as Costas Escanellas’ alternate on the University of the Balearic Islands body. The position has no political relevance. However, his appointment has a symbolic character of political support of Sa Unió to his figure. It is for this reason that the opposition avoided endorsing the measure as the resignation of Alcaraz was the condition demanded to support the motion of censure that brought Óscar Portas to the presidency. Nothing was said by GxF and PSOE about Costa Escanellas and contrary to the case of Alcaraz.
Córdoba: “It was incompatible”.
It was at this point in the debate when Llorenç Córdoba revealed that José Manuel Alcaraz had proposed Costa Escanellas for the remunerated position of the APB without being “neither political nor technical”, which was a “point of friction” unknown to date. For Córdoba, Costa Escanellas was “incompatible” for the position inasmuch as thanks to him he would have had access to confidential information on the bases of the tenders, among others, information that he could use to his benefit or by third parties with whom he maintains interests together, such as Ángel Bustos.
Juanma Costa’s interests
Costa Escanellas has been in the news in recent months for two controversial issues: the license for the Caminito restaurant and the hotel promoted by Angel Bustos in es Pujols. The license for the Caminito, which experts have described as null and void due to multiple irregularities and defects of form, is part of the documentation that Cordoba put in the hands of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. The hotel businessman is one of the promoters of the questioned project, along with the founding family of the Pacha Group, and the son of the previous operator of the restaurant, whose property is owned by the family of the general secretary of GxF, Sonia Cardona, as revealed by La Voz de Ibiza. Likewise, the Costa Escanellas family of Paya Hotels is a partner of Angel Bustos, who, according to La Voz de Ibiza, is the owner of the property. Prosecutor’s Office is asking for prison sentences for squatting the west dock in the port of La Savina for nearly five months for almost five months port facilities without a license, in the hotel Flor de Sal & Spa.
