Garrucha Mayor accused of 1.3 million euro theft – complaint finally lodged

The opposition PSOE party in Garrucha have finally gotten around to lodging their complaint against the Mayor with the Courts.

They reckon that over 1,3 million euros is missing from the town coffers, and that he and the budget controller have been up to the usual tricks.

I wrote about this back in Feb when the PSOE first announced plans to lodge the complaint (Garrucha PSOE opposition says Mayor has pinched over a million) but they’ve only just lodged it with the Prosecutor General.

The image of this story, by the way, is an old photo of Garrucha seafront before they built the first road there, 1930’s.

This department now has to consider the complaint and decide whether it’s worth investigating, and if so, appoint a judge to oversee the investigation.

The complaint also alleges that the (now ex-) budget controller of Garrucha, José Francisco Hernández Rueda, is a man appointed despite the fact that he has no professional qualifications. They complain he is guilty of the crimes of professional intrusion, usurping public functions and prevarication.

When all this blew up, Jose quit his job in Garrucha townhall, and the following week, was appointed a cosy job in Almería city townhall. The PSOE reckon it’s a stitch up.

The Mayor says it’s all a confusion and blames the problem on the previous administration.

In short, the problem is over a budget assignment of 1,8 million euros back in 2004 for improving the water network in the town. Three million euros were collected from various sources, and several projects signed.

When the PP gained control in 2007, there were 1.9 million euros somewhere ready to be spent.

The current complaint is where this money is. 400,000 euros was spent on the square in front of the townhall from this account. The rest appears to have vanished. The PSOE say it’s been stolen. The Mayor says it  just doesn’t appear in the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 budgets due to an oversight.