The National Court has rejected the request of the former president of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Richard Melchior to be part of Loro Parque Foundation for incompatibility, since when he was port manager he authorized the zoo to occupy a place on the dock.
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Ricardo Melchior’s request has been rejected because the National High Court considers that said activity had been declared incompatible and, therefore, considers the request as “manifestly unfounded”.
The historic leader of the Canarian Coalition (CC), who before passing through the Port Authority presided over the Cabildo de Tenerife for fourteen years, already was sanctioned for a very serious infraction of the law that regulates the regime of incompatibilities of the high positions of the State Administration.
Specifically, the Directorate of the Office of Conflicts of Interest ruled in this regard on July 31, so now “it is not possible to start a new authorization procedure.”
Melchior violated this rule by joining in April 2019, nine months after leaving the presidency of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a company to which he had granted administrative concessions during his time at the head of the public entity. He hid from the Office of Conflicts of Interest, dependent on the Ministry of Territorial Policy, that he had accepted the offer of the tourist group Loro Parque, which operates theme parks on the island with animals in captivity, to work as director of his foundation. Law 3/2015 prohibits senior officials from exercising during the two years following their departure from the position in private entities that have been affected by decisions in which they have had some type of participation. The Supreme Court (TS) dismissed the appeal in 2021 presented against the agreement of the Council of Ministers that disqualified him for five years to hold a position in the Public Administration.
The underlying issue is that when Melchior held the position of president of the Port Authority, he authorized Loro Parque to occupy a place in the Interchange for Cruise Ships at the Link Dock and to place an advertising panel inside the passenger terminal for a year. .
The reason is that he worked for the Foundation a year after resigning as president of the Port Authority without previously notifying him, which goes against the law regulating senior positions in the State Administration.
Melchior appealed the court ruling issued at the end of 2021 by the Central Administrative Litigation Court that ratified this incompatibility, since months before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid upheld the Foundation’s appeal against the resolution of the Ministry of Public Administration.
Then the Court, in addition to annulling the order, forced the actions to be taken back to resolve the substantive issues, specifically that Loro Parque is a company affected by the decisions made by Melchior when he held the position of president of the Port Authority.
But the National Court has just ruled now in the sense that if this request has already been denied on one occasion “it is unfounded to start a new one”, although the door is left open for the conflict to be resolved administratively and later. contentious-administrative appeal, at which time Melchior’s requests will be analyzed.
Before the National High Court, the former president of Ports alleged that the appealed sentence did not assess the arguments presented about the irregularities of the procedure and the conciliation of rights that he suffered, as recognized by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid.
Melchior believes that there has been a contradiction between this latest decision, on the one hand, and an administrative resolution on the other.
The State Attorney maintains that there is no such conflict and the Court agrees with him in that it supports the court ruling that opposed the initiation of a new judicial proceeding for the former president to become part of this Foundation.
However, the new sentence is not final and it is possible to appeal it before the National High Court itself.
