The Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia (OAC) has concluded that the golden retirement granted by the Parliament to many of its officials, allowing them to retire early at the age of 60, collecting their full salary due to the budgets of Kamara, constitutes an “irregular practice” in personnel matters.
The OAC stated this in its report that it delivered to Parliament this Thursday, where the organization noted another nine cases of irregularities in the management of personnel and highlighted the lack of transparency in the Chamber in guaranteeing access to information for the public. The OAC gave the Parliament one month.
Although the Parliament abolished the golden retirements in 2022, the Chamber led by Laura Borràs granted another 13 privileged early retirements, “most of them delayed by a year,” according to Antifraude. The OAC examined the 14 golden withdrawals granted between 2021 and 2022 and found that they were not “encouraged” and that Parliament did not dispute what it needed in terms of staff and services it provided.
In the opinion of Antifraud, the lack of motivation of the Parliament to grant the withdrawals is “especially relevant”, because in 10 of the cases where their entry into force is delayed, the officials are allowed to “add more computing time” , which allows them to “add percentages of wages.” In other words, charge more for your golden retirement.
“Parliament must review the irregularities shown and, in particular, the timely application of the regime for the revocation of authorized age licenses and the effects that may arise from the lack of motivation for the postponed entry into force,” it read. The report.
Gold withdrawals are not the only irregularity detected by the OAC. As detailed in the twelve-page press release from the agency, staff retirement bonuses or the creation of “instrumental job positions” during staff stabilization processes are also considered non-good practices.
Likewise, Anti-Fraud does not look good on the provision of positions to monitor the accounts of the Parliament, the expansion of competition areas for lawyers and ushers, and the conflict of interest of the former general secretary of the Parliament, Ester Andreu, who resigned in May last year because she did not inform the Board of hiring her son as an usher.
The anti-fraud report, directed by the former president of the Catalan TSJ Miguel Ángel Gimeno, has been received by the president of the Chamber, Anna Erra, who now has a period of thirty days to report on the measures adopted to correct the irregularities or reasons that prevent you from acting.
As reported by sources in the Parliament, Erra instructed the Secretary General of the Chamber with another report “on the content and scope” of the conclusions of the OAC to address the anti-fraud.
