The director of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), María Blasco, to whom controversies are accumulating over the management of this organization dependent on the Ministry of Science, has clarified her responsibilities this Friday and attributed to his superiors and the management of the board all possible irregularities that are attributed to the center, such as activities outside the original purpose of this public entity, the travel expenses of its staff or anomalies detected in the contract of the person responsible.
Doubts about his management at the head of the CNIO, the largest cancer research center in Spain, arose after the information published by ABC relating to the purchase of works of art for nearly one million euros or the collection by Blasco herself of a “bonus” of 90,000 euros in three years.
Everything, in the midst of the delicate budgetary situation of the CNIO, which for years has been accused of lack of financing and a significant deficitas its director reported: “Our budget has not increased since 2014 and there has been a contract stabilization process, which is what causes this deficit.”
In an interview on the Herrera en Cope program and despite recognizing the difficulties that the CNIO is going through, Blasco limited herself to clarifying her functions as scientific director; that is, at the head of the “scientific strategy of the center”, and gave the board the ultimate responsibility for the rest of the activities it carries out. «I do not have signing power. I do not have contracting power. “I do not sign a single CNIO contract,” he reiterated. The managing director, Juan Arroyo, is in charge.
However, Blasco was the one who created and developed CNIO Arte, a program with which the research center spent 877,787 euros on the purchase of works of art and on the hiring of at least two people. Within the framework of this project, 20,000 euros were also allocated to travel the works on multiple trips around the world, to destinations such as Washington, New York, Chicago, Mozambique and the Arctic. However, the scientific director defended that the program “is designed to attract funds” and that it had an impact on “important donations» for the CNIO for a value, according to estimates, of more than 700,000 euros.
«CNIO Arte’s expenses are regulated by agreements and contracts, reviewed by the State Attorney’s Office and approved by our board of trustees. I do not have the powers of signature. I simply I represent the CNIO in these initiatives that they have brought donations to the center, that we have been able to hire eight researchers and that they give a vision to society. If it is considered not useful, let our board decide,” Blasco concluded about the project, launched by her and which the board suspended last December.
“I don’t have any bonus”
No less commotion has been caused by the public salary of the center’s scientific manager. For three years, Blasco received irregularly 90,000 euros moreaccording to the information that appears in the Annual Accounts Audit that the General Intervention of the State Administration (IGAE) carried out on the public body in 2019.
On this point, the director of the CNIO did not fully clarify what happened to those ‘bonuses’ that she received for three years, and limited herself to pointing out that she “understands” that no type of irregularity occurred. «My salary is paid by the employerthe Ministry [de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades]. It is the salary that was approved according to my contract. I understand that I don’t have any bonus,” he explained.
He did detail that his salary consists of a fixed part and a variable part “depending on the achievement of objectives“and that, in any case, as he reiterated throughout the interview, “it is something that the board determines.” She also insisted on describing as “misinformation” the news published in different media about the possible irregularities of the CNIO, while urging to stop the alleged “campaign of attacks” suffered by her and the center, although without mentioning where it comes from. “I have requested an extensive audit by an independent body so that it can be audited and shed light,” he concluded.
#director #CNIO #discharges #irregularities #management #center #superiors
