Proposed Reforms Follow Sallar Foundation Controversy

On Tuesday 13 October 2026, CUP-Fem Manresa presented a motion at the full council session of Manresa City Council calling for stronger ethical safeguards in the allocation of public funds. This move follows public scrutiny over a proposed nominative grant of €10,000 to the Fundació Sallar, which shares leadership roles with Fundació Resilis, an entity under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in the DGAIA case. Although the city government confirmed the grant will not proceed, CUP-Fem Manresa argues the mere approval of the budget amendment raised serious concerns about oversight. The group stresses that had the links between the foundations not come to light, the grant might have been awarded.

The council cannot afford to create doubts about whether public money is being properly used,

the group stated, citing the need for greater transparency.

Key Proposals Include Automatic Exclusions and Enhanced Checks

The motion calls for revisions within six months to the city’s General Grant Bases, Budget Execution Bases, and Strategic Grant Plan to incorporate a formal integrity regime for beneficiaries. Under the proposed changes:

  • Entities whose administrators, board members or real owners have final convictions for corruption or crimes against public administration would be automatically excluded from receiving grants or contracts as long as the individual holds office and their record remains active.
  • In cases where an entity or its leadership is under investigation, but not yet convicted, for misuse of public funds, no automatic exclusion would apply. Instead, the full council would decide, based on technical and legal reports from the city’s Secretary and Interventor’s Office, with the possibility of awarding funds under reinforced safeguards.
  • The same scrutiny would extend to affiliated entities sharing board members, leadership roles, or organisational control with those under investigation or convicted.

Expanded Declarations and Contractual Safeguards

CUP-Fem Manresa also proposes strengthening the self-declaration forms required of grant applicants. These would now include full details of governing bodies, linked organisations, and any ongoing criminal proceedings or convictions, with an obligation to report changes. False declarations would trigger repayment of the grant. Such declarations would be cross-checked against the National Subsidy Database and relevant public registries. For nominative grants, the motion demands a mandatory integrity report on the beneficiary, including governance structure and open investigations, be made available to all political groups before the relevant committee meeting. Beyond grants, the motion urges systematic checks to ensure firms bidding for public contracts are not legally barred from doing business with public bodies. It also recommends introducing special integrity clauses in high-value or high-risk contracts and studying the implementation of independent monitoring in major tenders, such as waste collection. Finally, the group calls on the Catalan regional government (Generalitat) to establish a shared information system on connections between public funding recipients, aiming to prevent exploitation of legal loopholes across municipalities.

Primary sources: municat.gencat.cat, eb.gencat.cat, economia.gencat.cat, contractacio.gencat.cat. Reported by regio7.cat, naciodigital.cat, manresa.cat, Ajuntament de Manresa, begonya.galdamez, eb.manresa.cat, Regió 7.