Imogen Calderwood
BRUSSELS has launched an investigation into the Andalucian budget, after over €200 million of EU funds allegedly ‘vanished’.
The EU’s official corruption investigation will assess how the Andalucian government did spend the funds, which were intended to reduce work place accidents and improve labour policies.
According to reports, the Andalucian government did not maintain health and safety standards put in place to protect their workforce.
One aspect of the investigation will decide whether the government put its staff in danger by allegedly not implementing correct health and safety procedures, despite the money it received to implement them.
Numerous workers and companies have filed complaints to the EU High Commissioner, highlighting the dangerous conditions they were allegedly working in, and that funds intended to improve safety measures never materialised.
One of the complaints alleged that: “One can see how the organisational structure of the whole of the Andalucian government lacks the human and material resources to prevent hazards in the workplace.”
Another aspect the investigation will focus on is what happened to the EU money involved in the ERE slush fund.
Former director of the Andalucian goverment, Antonio Fernandez is currently under scrutiny by the investigation into the ERE slush fund scandal.
Judges investigating the ‘vanished’ funds have suggested that it was stolen.
The EU said in a statement that the government have been unable to ‘dispel the doubts of the Commission’, making the investigation unavoidable.
About time! To make it worse, the perpetrators seem to get away with it or end up with miniscule prison sentences. Spain, as a country, was never ready to join the EU. It’s the Wild West.
What took them so long to start the investigation ?
While the EU are at it, they should look into the Junta de Andalucia’s program of property demolitions and their human rights violations. Leaving Helen and Len Prior to live in a garage for six years with no electricity and a campervan for a bathroom should be enough to prosecute them before all the corruption allegations even get off the ground. I hope they swing.
@Fred. perhaps he will get a second chance, who knows?.
The andalucian area is mainly rural and the people in charge of local towns and so on relatively unsophisticated esp those in elected office suddenly they were inundated with millions of Euros from land licenses grants from the EU they literally did not know how to spend it all in order to keep getting the grants /so they made some of the expenses up inflated others
/for years nobody cared until the 2008 Banking crash
now people are looking at accounts and finding that the accounts are non existent /
In Andalucia written land records only started in the 60s before that posts marked the boundaries of properties and there was always village intrigue to get more of a neighbours land and so on a sort of minny land grab
The mind set of looking after yourself is historic in the region and when you pour money onto these type of local institutions you will find that most of it will disappear through corruption but also poor decision making and lack of experience in the wider world
Not quite sure who rob is blaming here, the “relatively unsophisticated esp those in elected office suddenly they were inundated with millions of Euros from land licenses grants from the EU” Da.
rob: the Junta de Andalucia’s lack of sophistication didn’t stop them demolishing houses did it? This “missing” €200 million is massive and takes the usual Spanish corruption to an entirely new level and is very, very serious. I doubt it has very much to do with bumpkins running rural town halls but much more to do with the so called top level people.
How an earth can PSOE/IU carry on running (I hesitate to call it that) the Junta de Andalucia? They should call an immediate election. They have got some front when you consider that PSOE/IU call themselves “socialists” and “communists” and supposedly champion the rights of the poor, oppressed and under-priviledged while all the time they have been helping themselves and keeping Andalucia in the third world. No wonder Andalucia is now called a Banana Republic.
It is despicable that they were sitting on all that money and yet they have not paid the Priors or the Brooks a penny in compensation.
They have been well and truly rumbled and completely discredited in just about every direction. They have nothing to offer anyone and should be kicked out immediately. I feel utter revulsion for them.