The Catalan Parliament has agreed to prohibit the heads of the parliamentary groups of the autonomous Chamber from being paid from the subsidy they receive, as the leader of Vox in Catalonia, Ignacio Garriga, has done in recent years. The Parliament’s Board agreed on July 30 to modify the instruction on control of the subsidy received by parliamentary groups to make it clear that “expenses destined to the remuneration of salaries and wages or professional services of the members of the parliamentary group or subgroup are not considered eligible for subsidy.” In other words, it is illegal to do what Ignacio Garriga has been doing and, since last year, three other members of Vox: its spokesman Juan Garriga, Sergio Macián and Manuel Acosta.
The tightening of the rules on the use of subsidies is in response to a recommendation from the Auditor, who acts as the Parliament’s general auditor, who in a report dated 26 July made it clear that Ignacio Garriga “breached article 19 of the Parliament’s regulations” by not declaring the salary he receives as president of the far-right parliamentary group in the Catalan Chamber.
The article of the regulation referred to in the report requires Catalan regional deputies to submit a declaration of their professional, work or business activities and the public positions they hold and a list of their assets and property; and to inform the chamber of any change in their financial situation within one month of the change occurring.
However, Garriga did not report during the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 that he was receiving an additional salary from the parliamentary group and only on June 6, after the scandal broke, he presented an updated declaration in which he includes as paid activity his position in “the leadership of the Vox parliamentary group”, as well as that of “general secretary of the Vox political party”.
In a previous report, the Ombudsman had already revealed that, between 2021 and 2022, Garriga had received 38,496.59 euros for “professional activity” and had also charged another 864.55 in invoices that apparently had no relation to the activity of the Vox group, such as the AMPA fee for his children’s school, hairdressing, dry cleaning or supermarket expenses.
After the Parliament’s Board repeatedly asked him for clarification, Garriga replied that all the invoices corresponded to ordinary operating expenses of the party, except for some for a total amount of 380 euros that had already been reimbursed. Regarding the 38,496.59 euros, he assured that they were the remuneration for “his work leading the group.”
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The Ombudsman acknowledged that, “with the scope of the control in force for the years 2021 and 2022, it is not possible to verify the amount” of the irregular expenses recognized by the far-right group. Regarding the extra wages paid to Garriga, she warned that all expenses in salaries and wages must be charged to item 64 “and must be taxed and paid”, while the payments to the leader of Vox in Catalonia were recorded in item 62, “external services”; which is an irregularity.
The auditor acknowledged, however, that “as the accounts [de esos años ya] are closed, no accounting reclassification is required, nor can it be verified whether the corresponding settlements to the Treasury and Social Security were made.
Vox took advantage of this report to assure on the 30th, through a statement, that it had been proven that neither the party “nor its general secretary have committed any irregularity or illegality”. However, the auditor does note several irregularities; among them, the non-compliance with article 19 of the regulations of the Parliament. But it implies that there is a legal loophole when it proposes to expressly prohibit the members of the parliamentary groups from receiving extra salaries from the subsidy they receive, in view of the fact that “the economic regime of the deputies already includes both fixed and variable allowances for the different positions they occupy”. The Board of the Parliament converted this recommendation into a rule in its meeting on the 30th.
The Ombudsman’s report only covers the accounts of the Vox parliamentary group for the years 2021 and 2022, as the far-right party presented its 2023 accounts on July 1 and has not yet been audited. A cursory examination of it shows, however, that Garriga continued to receive a monthly bonus from his group in the Catalan Parliament last year worth 3,700 euros (44,400 euros per year). Tracing irregular invoices is, however, more difficult than in previous years, as the vast majority of payments charged to the group’s credit card are presented under generic headings, such as “maintenance” or “travel”, without further details.
The investigation into the expenses of the Vox group in the Catalan parliament began last March, after the former MP of the party for Tarragona, Isabel Lázaro, filed a complaint with the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia. According to sources close to the party, Lázaro has recently sent a letter to the members of the National Executive Committee of the party in which she offers them documentation that proves the alleged irregularities and asks them to act “with determination against those responsible, in order to preserve the good name of Vox”. If not, concludes the letter from the former MP, she herself will take measures “so that these alleged crimes of possible misappropriation of public money for personal benefit do not go unpunished”.
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