Clean Hands denounces the director of the CNIO for embezzlement

The director of the CNIO is accused of an alleged crime of embezzlement, fraud and misappropriation. The complainant has provided as attached documentation the information revealed by ABC, which revealed that the CNIO had spent almost one million euros to buy works of art and hire personnel specialized in this matter, despite the fact that said “artistic” activity has nothing to do with with the original mission of the center, oncological research, as reported by the works council on the organization’s transparency portal.

Furthermore, at least three people were hired for this task and dozens of works were purchased, in what the aforementioned works committee considers an “unjustifiable activity” of the investigating body. The CNIO not only bought the works of art and hired this staff despite suffering a policy of very important cuts in the research field, but it also launched an important international itineration of the works with multiple trips attended by its top staff. responsible and that represented a significant expense for the center, officially calculated in more than 20,000 euros.

In addition to the controversial CNIO Arte project, Clean Hands denounces the director for “irregularly charging a bonus of 30 thousand euros for at least 3 years”, a fact that ABC reported when it published the information regarding the Account Audit Annual reports that the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE) carried out to the public body in 2019. Blasco would have received supplements that did not correspond to him in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 by a total amount of 90,197 euros, always according to the auditing body.

All this string of scandals, which have now been reported in court, caused Blasco to put his position at the disposal of the Center Board of Trusteeswhich in turn held an extraordinary meeting this week to deliberate on the future of the CNIO Arte project and its director. What emerged from that meeting was the definitive suspension of pictorial activities, paralyzing the Action Plan that its director intended to approve to continue with the organization’s investments, despite the fact that this institution has a projected deficit next year of 4.5 million euros. Finally, he approved an extraordinary board of trustees in which Blasco’s dismissal could be completed.