A councilor, dismissed after denouncing irregular payments to the son of the secretary of the mayor of Pozoblanco | News from Andalusia

The Pozoblanco City Council.

When Gerardo Arévalo was called by the PP to become part of the municipal lists for the Pozoblanco City Council (Córdoba, 17,102 inhabitants), he, who had not yet joined the party, set two conditions: that if he found any case of corruption was not going to silence him and let him work. Arévalo knew that the mayor, Santiago Cabello, had had friction with other councilors. In his barely nine months as a Personnel Councilor, he has tried to comply with his first premise and has seen how he was fired last Monday.

At this time, he had reported that the son of the councilor’s secretary had been paid for a job granted by the City Council for which he had not been appointed and which he never held, and he asked Cabello in January to initiate the pertinent actions to that the young man return the amounts received, almost 7,000 euros. The answer: an investigative commission headed by the mayor himself after having avoided on Friday, thanks to the absolute majority he enjoys, the request for recusal by the opposition, and only after Cordopolis and Radio Córdoba of Cadena SER revealed the string of alleged irregularities of what is now known as case of the young intruder.

Arévalo took office as a councilor in mid-June 2023, almost at the same time as the alleged ghost contract of the son of the mayor’s secretary, between 26 and 27 years old, ended. “It was an open secret that this boy was getting paid without working,” a source close to Arévalo, a lawyer by profession, explains to this newspaper. The young man had been hired by the Pozoblanco City Council for a position as a social integrator within the Joven Ahora plan, financed by the Government of Andalusia with European funds. He was employed between December 23, 2022 and June 22, 2023 and earned at least 6,733 euros, although he never set foot in his workplace at the municipal women’s center.

But the secretary’s son was not the only one hired for that position. Although he was the one who had the most points and was therefore designated the optimal candidate, the then Councilor for Personnel, Inmaculada Reyes, confirmed that if he was granted it would exceed in 52 days the legal maximum provided in the Workers’ Statute for the concatenation of municipal contracts. , whose maximum duration is 545 days. That’s why she proposed a second candidate. Despite everything, the City Council also granted the same contract to the young man.

Arévalo dedicated himself to collecting testimonies and reports from employees, technicians and managers of the women’s center where the young man was supposedly destined and even went to another social center, but in all of them he received confirmation that he had never been there. “He communicated this anomalous situation to the mayor verbally and in writing, without receiving any express response from the councilor,” explain the sources consulted. On November 21, the mayor sent a request to the boy to explain why he had received that remuneration and to proceed to return it. He also asked the mayor to report the case to justice. The councilor had to admit that an internal investigation had been initiated and announce an investigation commission in the City Council that he himself will preside over, after the challenge presented by PSOE and IU had not been successful, who understood that there was a personal interest on the part of the councilor, since his actions related to the case will be investigated, and for having a clear friendship with the mother of the young man who was paid without working.

The absolute majority enjoyed by the PP allowed the recusal not to go ahead, after a report from the municipal legal services was read in which jurisprudence was cited that supported the participation of the mayor in investigative commissions, which refuted the opposition arguments. This absolute majority is what makes the opposition and Arévalo suspect – they explain in those around them – that the investigation commission is not going to reach relevant conclusions.

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“Uneasiness and desperation” for getting paid without working

Throughout this time, the mayor has defended the legality of the contract of his secretary’s son and his suitability to perform the position. He has also justified that neither her contract nor that of the girl to whom it was finally awarded had been signed by him personally, as is required, because the contracting processes were carried out a month and a half before the municipal elections.

Beyond what the municipal investigation reveals, there are two clear proven facts, that the hiring of the young man is irregular and that he never went to work. The first was made evident by the Andalusian Government itself, which at the beginning of January demanded that the Pozoblanco City Council reimburse the subsidy of 252,000 euros granted for the youth employment program through which the secretary’s son was hired because he had several contracts that “had not been properly justified,” including that one, which was not recorded, and that of the girl who had been assigned the position. Finally, the City Council returned 30,000 euros after reviewing the procedure with the Territorial Delegation of Employment, Business and Self-Employment.

The second evidence has been recognized by the young man himself, who has sued the City Council for “violation of his fundamental rights and public freedoms”, as reported by the local digital Nowadays. The son of the municipal employee points out that having been paid without working created a “situation of restlessness and desperation” for not having been able to access that position “or be able to hold a different position during those months.”

He also defends that he was the one who had won the position for that contract. He does not stop there and assures that he never received his employment contract nor was he informed of “the beginning” of his employment, despite his “multiple attempts and requests.” The boy claims the right to effective occupation, to the corresponding moral damages and to the inadmissibility of the dismissal, for which he requests a total of 9,505.94 euros from the City Council.

The matter has been stranded in the investigation commission. The person who reported the events has not only been removed from his position as councilor, but has also been singled out by his party, which has asked him to resign on several occasions. “He is considering legal action and does not rule out leaving the party. “This is a small town and its honor is above all things,” say the sources consulted.

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