Bung-Sai: What? More corruption

It's all kicking off. Again.

To add to the previous and various corruption "operations" and "cases" - vulture, make-up, Palma Arena - there are now two more, the "Caso Plan Territorial de Mallorca" and "Operación Bonsai", or "bomsai" if you prefer. You say bomsai, I say bonsai. Let's call the whole thing off. Fat chance, now that the anti-corruption boys have started digging around in the pot plant earth of paper trails. They're going to need more than the 55 additional investigators, the cavalry from the mainland, to pick over the rotting body politic of Mallorca - like vultures. All these operation and case names, it's like the monikering of hurricanes. And here come further hurricanes, we can but presume.

It's hard to keep track of what's going on, especially as some of the same names keep cropping up in dispatches. Whether the minutiae of the cases really matter - to anyone other than the legal eagles (and vultures) - is a moot point. You're probably not interested, and I'm not sure that I am either, other than in the fact that the same sort of charges are being levelled and that these charges involve, for the most part, politicians or those involved with government or quasi-governmental organisations and projects. These charges include bribery, false accounting, diversion of funds and something known as "prevaricación", which is only partially similar to the English meaning. Getting to a precise understanding in Spanish isn't easy, but various options are - the deliberate avoidance of telling the truth and a breach of duty.

Of the two latest cases, the Caso Plan Territorial de Mallorca (PTM) relates to developments in different parts of the island, including those of the apparent conversion of "virgin" land into developed land in Alcúdia and Pollensa. Caught up in this are some old friends. Naturally enough, the former tourism minister Miquel Nadal is one of them: no corruption case would be complete without him appearing on the cast list. Also starring are ex-Enviro Man, Grimalt, and the Partido Popular's former president in the Balearics, Rosa Estaràs.

The little ornamental tree case centres on a company within the Balearic Government, CAIB Patrimonio, the function of which is the acquisition and sale of land and properties. So nothing strange about this, as corruption cases usually have to do with land and properties and who has trousered a wedge of illicit moolah. One of the figures in the Bonsai case, and we haven't heard from him or about him for a while, is Vicente Grande. Yep, he who was the president of Real Mallorca football club and helped turn it into the basket-case it remains, and who is implicated in the PTM case. More significantly, of those detained, one is Jorge Sainz de Baranda who was the director-general of taxes (!) under the administration of ... Jaume Matas.

So here we go again. Another boring day in Mallorca. Nothing much happening, only a bunch of politicos and chums being hauled in to explain how a whole bunch of public money ended up somewhere it wasn't meant to. Oh, and just in case you are wondering how a case comes to be called Bomsai, this is because it relates to the building of the "parque de bomberos" (fire-fighters) and the headquarters of the ministry of health in the islands ("salud-islas") in Palma. Bom. Sa. I. Geddit? Bomsai (aka Bonsai). Gosh, there are some clever folk in the police or judiciary who come up with these names. Maybe there's a department devoted to the naming of cases. There should be. There's enough work for there to be one.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.