The reports to declare the Minorcan as an Asset of Cultural Interest are null and void

CiutadellaThe stubbornness of the councilor gonella Joan Pons Torres to declare menorquí and the salted article as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Menorca (BICIM), and thus protect it from the 'threat' of standard Catalan, is about to explode in his hands. The legal subterfuges he has sought in order to impose his initiative against the official linguistic and academic criteria of entities and institutions have backfired.

Neither referring the file to the Historical Heritage Service and not to the Linguistic Advisory Service, as would have been precept, nor directly contracting the necessary reports from the former popular councilor Sili Pons Sabater, despite not having university studies, let alone philological ones, have served the councilor.

At the request of the association Fem-ho en Català, the Ciutadella City Council has certified that the author of the reports and files on menorquí, a public official, has not requested nor has she been granted authorization for compatibility to work outside the Consistory. This would imply, according to the entity, that the hiring of Pons Sabater by the insular Council is null and void, and therefore, so are the reports she has prepared and for which she has so far invoiced 8,125 euros. 

Once the certification from the municipal secretary has been obtained, Fem-ho en Català has filed an administrative complaint with the City Council, requesting that it investigate the facts, "go to the end of the disciplinary process" and open a disciplinary record against the former councilor for the "serious or very serious" infraction she allegedly committed.

The association invokes the law on public sector contracts, which considers all contracts involving individuals or public officials who do not have the due authorization or do not prove their technical solvency to be null and void.

And Sili Pons has no university degree or studies in the philological or linguistic field.

Fem-ho en Català recalls that the Council has its own linguistic and heritage services, which already have qualified officials who could have drafted the reports for which the Department of Culture directly hired Sili Pons. It is, it says, a "completely unjustifiable duplication. Having outsourced this task represents a clear waste of public money," it denounces and warns that it will go to the bottom to clarify all responsibilities.

"We will not allow public money to be wasted and irregular procedures to be used to try to give an appearance of legality to a political crusade against our language," warns Fem-ho en Català. In fact, it is already preparing to file new appeals and writings with the Council so that it "immediately stops this mess".

It so happens that Sili Pons already worked during the pandemic as a teacher of the Menorcan courses promoted by the then director of Sa Fundació, Joan Pons Torres, current Minister of Culture and promoter of the initiative. Precisely, Sa Fundació – from which the minister continues to be on leave – is the only entity that has publicly spoken out in favor of declaring Menorcan as BICIM.

The Menorcan Institute of Studies, the academic institution that must draft the mandatory report for the declaration to be approved by the Council, has already issued its warning to the minister. The president of the Scientific Council of the IME, Josep Maria Quintana, has been categorical: “Protect Menorcan, yes; turn its protection into an instrument to separate it from Catalan, no”.