Rob Horgan
JUNTA de Andalucia officials should be jailed over the bogus training scheme scandal, a top judge has said.
Javier Romero, who is leading the Operation Edu investigation in Huelva, said the Junta’s actions carry ‘a genuine penal responsibility’.
“The true victims are unemployed people that should have been the recipients of this money,” he said.
“The Junta and its inactions have allowed and consented to this scandal.”
The ongoing investigation has heard that former employment minister Manuel Recio fraudulently handed €50 million to a businessman he said he didn’t actually know.
He said he was merely ‘rubber stamping’ deals already made with svengali Angel Ojeda, who owned various companies, which received millions to set up bogus training programmes for the unemployed.
Recio claimed he did not know him, despite having worked with Ojeda’s sister-in-law for a number of years.
Three other Junta bosses, meanwhile, have been heavily criticised for failing to answer questions in the official probe.
Podemos has now filed a denuncia against Fatima Banez and Maria Dolores Genaro for failing to attend orders to appear, with a third is likely.
Corruption is everywhere of course, but here in Spain the politicians truly loathe the people they serve, and they abuse and take advantage of the most vulnerable people in society. Spain has some of the worst (if not _the_ worst) unemployment in Europe and yet the Junta allowed this abuse to happen, indeed were instrumental in it. These criminals flourish within Spain’s slow and cumbersome legal system. Alas, it won’t be the last time it happens – the Junta needs to be totally restructured from the ground-up. Are there any decent officials left in this country to do this? It seems not.
Quite right Fred, can you think of any other entity that has been rewarded for over 30 years of complete failure? I think they should also be banged up for the sheer misery they have caused with the so called illegal property situation and subsequent demolitions. They should be forced to pay the Priors some meaningful compensation.
The EU have looked at this issue, but nowhere near enough, and not with enough clout. If the EU wants to be taken seriously in the future, it needs to step in and sanction the offending countries. If the EU can sanction Spain over its debt levels, it can surely sanction them over the right to live in a home peacefully and legally.
The EU is run by the Elite for the Elite.giving out taxpayers money willie nillie.to crooks like this.to steal at there leisure.while house owners are ripped off daily by the spanish system.and nothing gets done.