Prosecutor, economist or banker: senior left-wing and PP officials lost up to 40,000 euros by joining the Generalitat

Carlos Mazón’s PP was especially belligerent with the salaries of the Botanical Pact Government when they were in opposition. Although Mazón earned more than the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, when he was president of the Alicante Provincial Council, he constantly criticized the remuneration of the members of the Consell. Upon reaching the Executive, Mazón made a flag of austerity by cutting senior positions and advisors. A few months later, he camouflaged a salary increase for senior officials who are civil servants or those who teach classes so that they could earn up to 15% more than the president in the regional budgets. In summer, he approved a decree that modifies the regional budgets and applied a 2% increase to public employees and members of the Executive, the same one that criticized the Botánico. This November, with the third composition of its Executive, the salary limit is eliminated for those who come from the public service: they will be able to earn more than 90,000 euros annually.

Neither in the decree in which this salary increase is camouflaged, which establishes measures for officials regarding DANA, nor in the communications about it, has it been explained to those affected, but both the wording of the article and the new incorporations put the focus retired Lieutenant General Francisco José Gan Pampols, second vice president; and in the professor of medicine and doctor of surgery Juan Carlos Valderrama, new Minister of Emergencies. The new rule allows them to maintain their salary as public employees, exceeding without limit that of the president of the Generalitat Valenciana. A professor at the University of Valencia earns over 60,000 euros per year, if he works full time, while the salary of the retired military high command would be close to 90,000 euros, according to the Defense transparency portal. A rank-and-file councilor earns 68,000 euros annually in 2024, according to the Transparency portal of the Generalitat Valenciana.

Salary limitations made it difficult to incorporate private sector personnel into the front line, recognize leaders of the Botanical Pact, who value those who gave up between 15,000 and 30,000 euros annually to be regional councilors or secretaries. In the first Consell del Botànic, the coalition formed by PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem, a councilor received 58,000 euros per year, practically the same as an autonomous secretary, without taking into account the residence supplements or the three-year terms if he was a civil servant. Until then, regional legislation only allowed this annual compensation to be maintained for exercising public service. Even the chiefs of staff lost money, they point out.

One of the few people who left a private company to enter the second step of the Executive is Clara Ferrando, appointed regional Secretary of the Treasury by Compromís. To date she had been director of private banking at Banc Sabadell, with a remuneration of around 80,000 euros. She is, according to her resume, a financial analyst and was in charge of managing assets and treasury of family businesses and SMEs, as well as analyzing financial and capital markets. He returned to the bench at the end of the legislature. Ferrando was the number two of the socialist Vicent Soler, who joined the Consell from the University of Valencia, where he was a professor and dean of the Faculty of Economics. Soler stopped receiving close to 20,000 euros per year, given that close to 8,000 euros per year for the deanship would be added to the remuneration of the professorship. He also lost, like all academics, six-year periods of research. Gabriela Bravo, head of Justice, who came from the State Attorney General’s Office and lost close to 17,000 euros per year, was a member of the same Consell.

Before the Botànic, the last executives of the PP also turned to public or private sector employees who considerably reduced their income. Manuel Llombart, Minister of Health with Alberto Fabra, received close to 300,000 euros in the Valencian Institute of Oncology, of which he was general director, to go on to reach almost 70,000 in the regional Executive. In the same Consell was Juan Carlos Moragues, head of the Treasury between 2012 and 2014, an official of the higher body of State Treasury inspectors. He came from being a delegate of the Tax Agency of the Province of Castellón and professor of the ADEIT master’s degree in Taxation at the University of Valencia. Only with the difference in positions he stopped earning close to 40,000 euros per year, between 40% and 50% of his salary taking into account teaching supplements. PP sources also cite the cases of Máximo Buch, who went from the private sector to the Ministry of Economy, and Vicente Rambla, Minister of Industry with Francisco Camps, who was also a Treasury inspector, with salaries similar to those of Moragues.

There are also other senior positions in the second tier who saw a difference in their remuneration, such as the regional secretaries who were, until the moment of their appointment, auditors in municipalities. This is the case of Andreu Ferrer, regional secretary of the Presidency, Puig’s right-hand man in the Consell, who as municipal auditor was close to 90,000 euros, or the director of the Valencian Tax Agency, Sonia Díez, also a tax inspector, who became general director rank.

The Mazón Executive, who denies that eliminating the limitation implies a salary increase, explained that the measure applies to new members and justified it as a way to “attract talent.” “We need to incorporate talent and capacity to address the reconstruction, with people who have acted in scenarios as large as the one we currently find in Valencia.” These words lit up the chamber in the last control session, held last Thursday, where the left bench asked if there was no talent among public officials, and accused the new vice president of linking his vocation to salary.