The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) are investigating Catalan culture minister Laura Borràs for irregular contracts from her time as director of the Institute of Catalan Letters. First reported by Cadena Ser and confirmed to El Nacional by sources within the investigation, the police are looking into the hiring of a programmer for the redesign of the Institute's website and the creation of new pages. The services were allegedly carried out through contracts split up to be worth less than 15,000€ each to lower costs and avoid the need to put the work out to tender.
As part of the investigation, the Mossos this morning entered the Catalan Telecommunications & Information Technology Centre (CTTI) and the Institute itself with search warrants. The CTTI stores all the Catalan government's information and provides it with computing services. This includes maintaining the servers behind all official emails.
Sources from the Catalan digital policy and public administration department have said that the sources come after a judge issued a warrant and the Mossos asked for information as part of the case, currently under a secrecy injunction. The same sources confirm that the operation is entirely unrelated to the ongoing investigations into last year's referendum. According to Catalunya Diari, the technician involved was a Masters student from the University of Barcelona where the minister taught.
The minister has told the Catalan News Agency that she is "proud" of her five years as the Institute's head and that she has "nothing to hide".