The Compromiso Manilva municipal group has this lunchtime condemned the appointment, «hand-picked and without a selection procedure», of Aitor Menoyo as Urban Planning manager at Manilva Town Hall.
«An appointment that surprises us: he was convicted in 2022 as the person responsible, through necessary cooperation, for a crime of administrative misconduct (prevaricación), receiving a sentence of 21 months’ special disqualification from any public office or employment, according to the ruling of the Provincial Court of Málaga. And he is also currently under investigation in another court case», say Compromiso Manilva.
The conviction also states that «Menoyo was hired by Manilva Town Hall as a legal adviser in 2008 «dispensing with any selection process».
«It is unacceptable that the mayor of Manilva, who championed the fight against corruption in his election campaign and beat his chest as a defender of transparency and legality, has given in and signed a decree appointing the convicted Aitor Menoyo, yielding to pressure from the non-affiliated councillors and government partners, solely to remain in the mayor’s office», says the local party.
«We have gone from a manager chosen through an open and transparent procedure, with extensive academic training and experience in urban planning, to a partisan manager convicted of misconduct in public office (prevaricación)».
Compromiso Manilva sees this move «as a partisan choice, since it should be remembered that Mr Aitor Menoyo is an active member of the group of non-affiliated councillors, not to mention that he currently has several judicial proceedings open, in some of which he has already been convicted. Menoyo is no example of anything, least of all transparency, management, impartiality and the fight against corruption. We are returning to the dark era of Manilva, where with Mr Menoyo hidden interests are flourishing again and the Urban Planning department is being run at his whim».
The Compromiso Manilva Municipal Group has announced that it will take a joint motion with the PSOE to the next council meeting, urging the mayor to dismiss the current Urban Planning manager, Aitor Menoyo, and to immediately revoke the mayoral decree of 21 August 2023, which gives him the powers and salary of a manager without being one.
The motion also calls for a new selection process to be started immediately, using the rules and criteria in place in the previous term of office, in which equal opportunities for everyone and objective criteria take priority.
«At Compromiso Manilva we hope this motion will go ahead with the support of our councillors and those of the Socialist Party, and that, when it comes to the vote, it will be joined by those councillors who arrived at the Manilva council meeting giving lessons in honesty and who say they are against corruption. Now is the time to prove it», they stress.
Finally, Compromiso Manilva recalls the arrest last year of Aitor Menoyo in an anti-drug-trafficking operation in Manilva, «where he was arrested by the Guardia Civil in an alleged urban planning corruption plot, and in which a large amount of cash was seized at his home, as well as the freezing of his account, which he recovered after some time», they conclude.
