Catalá has expressed her intention to be a “very active collaborator” with the public ministry. Furthermore, she has announced that she has requested a report from the municipal secretariat on the selective processes that are the subject of the investigation, with the aim of having it “accredited” that the procedure was “regulated”. However, she has defended that she is already certain that it was a “usual and normal” process.
These statements come after it was made public that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has opened investigation proceedings against the mayor herself and the president of the Port Authority, Mar Chao, for alleged prevarication and influence peddling. The investigation focuses on the alleged “reassignment” of public personnel “by appointment”, which also affects councilors Rocío Gil and Paula Llobet and four public employees.
In parallel, Compromís and the PSPV have requested the Prosecutor's Office to also investigate the Councilor for Major Projects and Contracting, José Marí Olano. This request was made after the publication in Eldiario.es of the transcription of some audios in which the councilor invites employees of the Consorcio València 2007 to apply for public employment calls before the entity's extinction to reassign them.
Catalá has defended Marí Olano's words, arguing that “it was evident that there was a political will of the entire corporation to comply with one of the mandates of the royal decree regulating EREs, in this case a regulation file for the dissolution of València 2007”. She added that the councilor's statements reflect the same as those made by Ferran Puchades (Compromís) or Javier Mateo (PSPV) in the municipal plenary session of September 2024, where the reassignment of workers in public entities dependent on the València City Council was discussed.
“"We denounce a coordinated operation between the Port Authority and the València City Council in which, when they see that the consortium was being extinguished, they are in charge of preparing seven positions. When two of the people access two positions in the port, they immediately withdraw the other five because they were not necessary."
For his part, the socialist spokesperson, Borja Sanjuán, has compared Marí Olano to Alfonso Grau, stating that “the question is whether we have to believe that a person who falsifies positions in the administration for people with whom they have no apparent connection will not also be falsifying public contracts for companies that pay them a salary”.
