• Crisis. The lawyer of Podemos: "I have been fired to cover their bonuses in black"
  • Irregularities. Internal earthquake in Podemos with accusations of sexual harassment and "financial irregularities, in primary and in consultations"
  • Complaints: A lawyer from Podemos reveals "financial irregularities, in primary and in consultations"

The two lawyers purged by Podemos, José Manuel Calvente and Mónica Carmona , investigated, among other irregularities, the systematic payment of bonuses to the base employees of the party by means of inflated or directly false displacement certificates.

The members of the legal training team led by Pablo Iglesias warned of the existence of irregular mileage payments carried out systematically and widely among training workers. Through this formula, in which the routes were supposedly falsified, the route was artificially increased or taxi receipts that did not correspond to regulatory trips were sneaked in, hundreds of extra euros were paid to dozens of workers.

According assure WORLD sources close to internal investigations, the lawyers warned the Finance Department of the existence of frequent payments for travel expenses generally very high in central Madrid that apparently had no justification. For this reason, the responsible parties were required to provide proof of the countless payments.

Likewise, another of the lines of investigation that the lawyers had in place in relation to the irregular bonuses whose existence they have denounced within the formation, affected the deputies of Podemos. In this sense, they detected a rosary of irregularities in the donation of a large part of their public salary, as they had all officially committed. Not in vain one of the agreed basic issues went through that the limit set was three minimum wages.

Many of them alleged, according to the same sources, continuing exceptional family circumstances to avoid having to give up the amounts committed. In this way they perceived a bonus that violated the internal codes of the party.

Breach of internal code

It should be remembered that the dismissal of both lawyers has unleashed a serious internal crisis in the purple formation, which has come to publicly accuse one of them, José Manuel Calvente, of sexual harassment of a party partner.

Calvente, in an exclusive interview granted to EL MUNDO said that the real reasons for his dismissal were that they had discovered the payment of irregular bonuses in training. Specifically, he pointed out two cases, that of the treasurer and that of the manager , who, always according to their version, received 900 euros extra illegally and fiscally opaque. Likewise, Calvente has pledged to put the evidence in its possession at the judicial disposal so that it can be thoroughly investigated and strongly denies the accusations against him.

The lawyers also warned that the aforementioned bonuses were being released without the existence of an approved budget for the 2019 exercise by the State Citizen Council , which they considered illegal. At the same time, they recalled that dismissals had been made referring to the poor economic situation of the party resulting from the loss of income. With regard to mileage expenses, the party has articulated through an internal protocol the conditions they must meet.

Thus, according to this code, "travel expenses are considered those incurred on the occasion of attending meetings of the Citizen Council or the Coordination Council." But also "carried out on the occasion of the performance of other functions related to the party and provided that they are not covered by the institution, association, organization or any other that causes displacement." In the case that private vehicles are used, we can pay 0.20 euros for each kilometer traveled.

This internal regulation flatly rejects all those "repeated and periodic expenses that, due to their nature and characteristics, are considered to be reduced or minor, that are excessive or that are out of the market or are disconnected from the ethics of the party."

40 euros taxi tickets

All this must be governed by "a responsible and austere use of the party's resources", an extreme that was rejected by the lawyers of the party after analyzing the accounting.

Likewise, the regulations establish an issue that, at the discretion of the lawyers, was systematically breached. The internal code indicates that "general expenses will not be generated by travel expenses within the locality". And he adds that only "in exceptional cases, duly justified, can the expenses generated by urban taxis be paid".

According to the result of the first inquiries of Calvente and Carmona, very large travel expenses followed by amounts that, by common sense, did not correspond to the distances from the center of Madrid. Hence, to cite a specific example, numerous taxi tickets surfaced around 40 euros for short trips that led the legal team to internally report the facts.

These practices contravene, according to the criteria of the lawyers, in addition to the internal protocols, the own regulations in fiscal and Social Security matters.

Especially considering that the party itself provided its members with listings of examples of expenses that should never be paid for being considered excessive. In this sense, Podemos advised its members not to pay 3.50 euros for a coffee or seven euros for a breakfast for which a maximum of three must be paid.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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