The PP Mayor of Garrucha has been charged in a private prosecution bought by the opposition PSOE party in the town, over a missing 1.3 million euros that vanished from the town coffers. The town budget controller has also been charged in the case.
Juan Francisco Fernández had to declare in front of the Judge at Court number 3 in Vera last 11th of November, and the Judge has now decided to open an administrative case to investigate the allegations.
The complaint by the PSOE, lodge last Feb, said that since 2004 Garrucha townhall had been receiving payments from various government bodies for projects that were never completed or started, but which nonetheless had payments made for them.
Now, what is happening to this money is unclear. The PP claim that it’s simply a case of not reading the books correctly, and that at worse the money has been used on projects different than it was originally intended for.
This has caused a situation where the townhall claims in its budget to have 2,3 million euros in liquidity under its control (money in the bank that is earmarked for projects) but the opposition claims the real amount in the banks is just 959.000 euros. The court must now analyse the towns accounts to see if the missing 1.3 million euros can be accounted for or if it has been siphoned off.