They warn of the uncontrolled private use of Council cars by workers

PalmaThe controversy over the use of public cars by the second vice-president of the Consell de Mallorca, Pedro Bestard (Vox), has brought to light voices that warn that the practice is not anecdotal among workers. Bestard himself admitted last Thursday that he never kept a record of which car he took or the route he took. “I didn't know it had to be done”, he justified: “The staff themselves don't do it”. According to the testimony of four workers from the island institution [who requested anonymity], it is “known” that some public employees take advantage of a lack of exhaustive control of vehicles to use them in their private lives. They specify this in two areas: Environment (led by Bestard) and Roads (dependent on Territory). “Some don't even have their own car, they use the one from work”, explains one of them.

The Consell is preparing two reports to clarify the facts, while Bestard denies having made any personal use of the vehicles. According to information revealed by Uúltima Hora, Bestard did not carry out this alleged misuse with one of the five official cars with a chauffeur, which are subject to direct control that begins with the drivers themselves. He did it with two of the vehicles available to the department's staff: a Dacia and a Subaru.

Baby car seats

Currently, there are approximately fifty vehicles of this category in the Environment department, and sixty in Roads. Several technicians assure that some workers use them for personal travel. “It even happens with cars that bear the Council's logo”, says one of them.

“Those who take the cars are mainly road wardens”, points out a civil servant. “It's been happening for decades, but no politician has wanted to stir it up”, he explains. He details having found colleagues driving a Council van with the whole family. He also recalls the case of a worker whose vehicle was towed away on a weekend. “Some have even put a child seat in them, and some keep them while on vacation”, he states.

A third member of the Council staff agrees with this account of events. “There were people sending us photos to show us that some cars with the logo were parked at private homes”, he notes. The practice was widespread enough that a control system was implemented in some departments, which consisted of having workers sign a document of responsible use.

Due to the type of work, it is common for staff to have to travel: whether to inspect works, natural areas or public roads. Hence the flexibility in making vehicles available to them. “You can keep the vehicle overnight if where you are going is very far and your home is nearby, but if you keep the car as a habit, it is irregular,” explains this technician. Although he argues that the abuse of the system “is being combated,” he warns that “there are always people who try to take advantage of it.” There is no department that has centralized control over vehicles, but rather it falls to a manager – a general secretary – of each area: “They do not want to confront their colleagues.”

In this regard, a former employee of the Department of Environment (between 2015 and 2019) has a contrasting view. She assures that, during the period she was at the island institution, the general secretary of her area kept a “meticulous control” of public vehicles. “It was always known who had the department's cars, they were all labeled and their use was prioritized by employees and not by political appointees,” she explains.

A fifth source from the Council administration insists that, despite good intentions, “there is a lack of control, because in the end the supervisor cannot check if the worker really has a work visit or stays with the car”. He recalls three cases of people who ”directly did not have a car and used the Council's one”. However, he opines that in recent years this indiscriminate use has been reduced. “Now it is not so pronounced, but abuses still occur”, he says.

In the Council's budgets, it is not clear how many resources in total are allocated to these vehicles: it is broken down among multiple items. In 2026, an investment of 75,627 euros was made in the maintenance of vehicles for the Roads area, and 1,000 euros for the maintenance of vehicles for the Technical Inspection (ITV) service. In the Environment area, nearly 70,000 euros are allocated to vehicle maintenance, and 5,000 euros for car rental for the hunting service.

There is no record of non-compliance

Sources from the presidency of Llorenç Galmés (PP) explain that they have no record of these cases. However, they detail that they will request explanations and take measures to ensure proper use of the vehicles in the face of "any indication." Asked about the issue last Thursday, the former president of the Council (2019-2023) and current leader of the PSOE in the institution, Catalina Cladera, also denied having detected situations like those described by the workers. "Any civil servant who uses a vehicle needs to fill out a control sheet and no trip escapes explanation," she said.

The institution has a fleet of five official vehicles with drivers intended almost exclusively for the government team, made up of nine executive councilors. In April 2026, 134 services were carried out with official cars. However, island councilors can use those of the general category if they are available, as Bestard did.