MADRID, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Spanish builder Ferrovial paid a Catalan political party commissions worth 4 percent of public work contracts it won under its government, Spanish media reports said on Wednesday, citing documents from Spain's tax office Hacienda.
The documents are part of a continuing court investigation into alleged corruption in Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya (CDC), a centre-left Catalan political party.
Spain's tax office alleges that CDC received 5.9 million euros ($7.71 million) from Ferrovial in the form of donations to a Barcelona concert hall, Palau de la Musica, which were then funnelled to party members, newspaper El Pais said.
In return, Ferrovial is alleged to have won big contracts like the construction of a Barcelona subway line and its City of Justice industrial park.
'This is what has been deduced from documents found in a July 23, 2009 investigation which explicitly link payments by Ferrovial to winning certain public works at a regular fee of 4 percent of the budget for material implementation,' the paper quoted the tax report as saying.
'The tax office put together the documents requested by the judge and handed them over to the court,' Bruno Perez, spokesman for Hacienda, told Reuters, but declined to comment on their content or whether Ferrovial was a subject of the probe.
CDC is part of the Convergencia i Unio (CiU) coalition which ran Catalonia in Spain's industrial north for 23 years until 2003 and is now expected to win October regional elections by a large margin, unseating the ruling Socialist-led coalition.
A spokesman for Ferrovial, Spain's second largest builder by market capitalisation and owner of London's Heathrow airport and Canada's 407-ETR toll road, said the company was not going to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Catalonia's Supreme Court also declined to comment on the investigation. No one from the CiU coalition was available to comment.
($1=.7650 euros)
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Keywords: FERROVIAL/ (tracy.rucinsk@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: tracy.rucinski.reuters.com@reuters.net; +34 91 585 2153) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
The documents are part of a continuing court investigation into alleged corruption in Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya (CDC), a centre-left Catalan political party.
Spain's tax office alleges that CDC received 5.9 million euros ($7.71 million) from Ferrovial in the form of donations to a Barcelona concert hall, Palau de la Musica, which were then funnelled to party members, newspaper El Pais said.
In return, Ferrovial is alleged to have won big contracts like the construction of a Barcelona subway line and its City of Justice industrial park.
'This is what has been deduced from documents found in a July 23, 2009 investigation which explicitly link payments by Ferrovial to winning certain public works at a regular fee of 4 percent of the budget for material implementation,' the paper quoted the tax report as saying.
'The tax office put together the documents requested by the judge and handed them over to the court,' Bruno Perez, spokesman for Hacienda, told Reuters, but declined to comment on their content or whether Ferrovial was a subject of the probe.
CDC is part of the Convergencia i Unio (CiU) coalition which ran Catalonia in Spain's industrial north for 23 years until 2003 and is now expected to win October regional elections by a large margin, unseating the ruling Socialist-led coalition.
A spokesman for Ferrovial, Spain's second largest builder by market capitalisation and owner of London's Heathrow airport and Canada's 407-ETR toll road, said the company was not going to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Catalonia's Supreme Court also declined to comment on the investigation. No one from the CiU coalition was available to comment.
($1=.7650 euros)
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Keywords: FERROVIAL/ (tracy.rucinsk@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: tracy.rucinski.reuters.com@reuters.net; +34 91 585 2153) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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