He former mayor of Lebrija, the socialist Antonio Torreswas employed at Faffe from 2004 to 2020, during which time he earned nearly half a million euros without even going to work or doing any work. Indeed, as this newspaper reported in 2020, the former mayor of Lebrija A 156 square meter apartment was purchased in the center of Seville just a year after entering the Faffe. Today, thanks to the statements of a former head of Faffe in court it is confirmed that Towers Not only was he not going to work, but the socialist would also have gone to Peru as a “guest” at a forum, at public expense, to participate in a “conference”.
During the trial held by the Third Section of the Court of Seville against the former director general of Andalusian Foundation Training and Employment Fund (Faffe) Fernando Villen and the former mayor of Lebrija, Antonio Torres García (PSOE)for alleged prevarication and embezzlement in the context of the “arbitrary” hiring of the aforementioned former first mayor; A former official of the entity investigated in the parent case said he did not “physically” see Towers at the entity’s headquarters.
Concretely, this Tuesday, he appeared as a witness Juan Carlos Diaz Matíaswho was director of Permanent structures of the Faffestudied in the main piece of this macro-case, an aspect of which the court was unaware until it was highlighted at the beginning of the law on Anti-corruption prosecutor Fernando Soto.
This witness recounted that during his several years at Faffe, he did not see Antonio Torres Garcia “physically” in the facilities of the Faffe. Furthermore, and despite the fact that, according to the investigation Villen would have created the Directorate of External Relations within the Faffe to attribute such an allegedly fictitious domain to the former socialist mayor of Lebrijathis witness declared that he does not remember that he attended the management committees of the entity, which were held every Monday after having convened each of the department directors, among whom he included himself.
However, he indicated that he had dealt with the former mayor “twice” for reasons linked to the role of both in the Faffedescribing that in the first case he had a “face to face” contact of approximately “15 or 20 minutes” with Torres García, because he was promoting an action related to the academic field with the aim of attracting European funds for the project, even if the idea ultimately didn’t have “many trips”.
On the second occasion, as detailed by his organizational head, Joaquin Alberto Moralesinformed him that the Spanish Foreign Cooperation Agency He was looking for profiles for Spanish participation in a forum that would be held in Peru in relation to local entities and associations, asking his superior to contact Torres García given his “municipal experience” and the fact that his path “coincided” with the “profile” that was searched for.
He, as he said, would have limited himself to “rebounding” Torres Garcia said the email, corroborating that his “profile coincided” with that requested by the Spanish Foreign Cooperation Agency and that Torres García had thus traveled to Peru as a “guest”, charged to the funds of the State, to participate in said forum with a “conference”.
This witness stated at all times that he “took for granted” that Torres Garcia was “linked” to Faffealthough he assured that at that time he was unaware of the specific “format” of the link between the former mayor of Lebrija and the entity, recalling that it had a workforce of around “1,800 people”. Thus, he said he had the “impression” that between the former mayor and Faffe there was “a sort of collaboration agreement”.
During the hearing, in addition, the court determined that it would be October 10 that the two defendants, who had requested to testify at the end of the trial and not at the beginning, would appear.
According to the order transforming the proceedings into abbreviated proceedings in this case, after Antonio TorreI lost the mayor’s office Lebrija In the 2003 municipal elections, after 24 years in power, he allegedly asked the then technical general director of the Andalusian Training and Employment Fund Foundation for his “placement at Faffe, to which Villén accepted, promoting a new management position in his favor”. , “non-existent in reality, which would satisfy the conditions of permanent employment and salary requested” by the former socialist mayor of Lebrija.
All this, despite the fact that Torres Garcia “He lacked the training and skills necessary to assume functions corresponding to this professional level” of manager. Thus, and according to the investigating judge, the former mayor of Lebrija “was hired on July 1, 2003 with a temporary, extended and indefinite contract with effect from December 1, 2004, as manager, with a total remuneration of 46,750 euros per person. year, being registered as an employee at Faffe until his termination of employment and his integration in May 2011 into the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE)”.
Unfair hiring
The hiring, according to the investigating judge, took place “without any process of evaluation or contrast of the aptitude or aptitude of the person to be hired”, that is to say “of unfair and arbitrary manner, disregarding the hiring procedures to which the Faffe was to be adjusted, without any competition from other possible candidates for the position, and in a manner contrary to the general principles of publicity, objectivity, impartiality, equality of opportunity, merit and ability which would govern said selection and hiring process, in accordance with its own regulations.
“There is no documentation that reveals minimum compliance with the requirements and budgets that govern the selection and hiring of staff, whether technical or managerial, by a public foundation such as the Faffe», determines the investigating judge.
Added to this, as the judge specifies in the order, that the administrative organization chart of the Faffe “did not envisage any management position to which the former mayor indicted could access”, which is why the other defendant “came to create one”. ad hoc that he called External Relations Department”, a department that “was in reality non-existent, so that it lacked structure, functions and effective content; without physical headquarters, no offices, no desks, no assigned staff.
Without going to work
Indeed, the judge warns that the former mayor “did not even go to the foundation’s headquarters, nor did he carry out any work (he was unknown to the other workers and managers), although he obtained business or presentation cards”, so that “the limited activity carried out, limited to specific contacts with a politician or an authority”, was carried out “always” from his home “and with his own means, IT and free generic email account“.
Consequently, “the investigation Antonio Torres would have occupied a higher level position, non-existent in the Faffe organization, without specific task and, in short, without carrying out real work, with the acceptance and approval of Fernando Villenwhich would have allowed Torres Garcia “He will receive 491,203.03 euros” until 2020, “without it being proven that he actually worked, also benefiting from the advantages of a fictitious registration with Social Security, and finally being integrated into the Andalusian Service of employment after the extinction of Faffe, without further delay.” deserves that his affinity and his personal and political links with Villen Rueda», summarizes the judge, who thus orders the continuation of the procedure according to the abbreviated procedure.
Thanks to such alleged facts, the prosecution affirms Fernando Villen four years in prison for an alleged offense of embezzlement and ten years of special disqualification for a possible offense of prevarication; while for the former mayor of Lebrija, he demands two and a half years in prison for embezzlement and four years of disqualification for alleged prevarication.
About VillenRemember that there is already a first sentence of six years in prison for a continuous offense of embezzlement in competition with a continuous offense of falsification of an official document as an instigator, for payments in hostess clubs with bank cards of the aforementioned public entity. , belonging to Junta of Andalusia.
