The case of corruption of the ERE in Andalusia, partially diluted after passing through the particular sieve of the Constitutional Court (TC), cannot be explained without the tireless work of the economist and auditor Ángel Turrión Macías (Salamanca, 1953). This auditor of the General Administration of the State was co-author of up to 275 reports which put in black and white the aid fraud for which the defendants were convicted. former Andalusian presidents Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán. On September 30, he died in a hospital in Madrid. His heart stopped suddenly when he was a year into retirement, after more than four decades of experience in the response role.
He leaves three sons, Daniel, Javier and Miguel, four grandchildren and a partner, Alicia Allepuz, who accompanied him for 22 years. And also an indelible memory. As a civil servant, I had no hours or weekends. His dedication was total. When the judge who opened the ERE file, Mercedes AlayaResponsible for deciphering the nebula of irregular subsidies to companies in crisis, Ángel Turrión devoted his nights, Saturdays and Sundays, to studying in depth how controls were flouted to distribute public funds discreetly and without any regulation.. Few details escaped this seasoned auditor who belonged to the body of state auditors and auditors since 1978.. The 3,899 pages taken from his computer as head of the team of auditors clearly reflect his titanic work. Not only the judges who used his services, but also the Andalusians, harmed by the arbitrary distribution of public funds, owe a debt to Ángel Turrión.
Never in his life has he seen “so many irregularities together”
During the trial held in 2018 against the former senior regional officials, Turrión appeared before the court of the first section of the Seville Provincial Court as a judicial expert with three other colleagues from the Intervention. He defended his arguments with such vehemence and conviction that he left the other professors disarmed. and prestigious jurists who accompanied the defenses. During the hearing, he even declared that he had never found in his lifeor “such an accumulation of irregularities” as in the aid system which the Seville court ruled illegal in a judgment which listed point by point the anomalies contained in its reports.
The Supreme Court also approved their reports, although the TC, with a progressive majority of judges, urged to reduce the sentences, considering that the constitutional rights of the defendants had been violated. Nevertheless, The guarantee body assumed that some assistance They committed clear embezzlement by deviating from the objectives set out in the program.
Turrión also participated as an expert witness in the case of IDEA Agency Amendments in Andalusia or Training Fraud in Galicia. In 1992, he performed legal assistance functions in the trial against the former director of Spanish Television Pilar Miró for purchasing costumes with public money. She demonstrated that the clothes she wore were the property of the public channel and that she did not keep them. She was acquitted at trial.
Ángel Turrión has also been financial director of different audiovisual groups. What few people know is that he was an expert in subjects as diverse as Philosophy, Metaphysics, Religions or Astrophysicsvery far removed from the control function it exercised. His love for seeking an explanation of our existence and place in the Cosmos has been captured in an informative astronomy book aimed at beginners. entitled “A walk in the light of the Milky Way” in 2009.
He instilled his devotion to the stars in his children. When they were little in El Espinar, a town in Segovia, he took them stargazing in the Sierra de Segovia mountains. There he taught them about the constellations, galaxies and planets. He didn’t miss a single meeting with the stars on August 12. When The phenomenon of the “Perseids” (the tears of Saint Laurent) was at its peakhe took all the children to a clearing in the mountains with blankets and coats to cover themselves and watch the shooting stars on the ceiling.
Angel’s star has faded, but not the mark he leaves behind, which continues to shine in the firmament of civil servants who fought corruption with greater determination and perseverance.
