In 2013, a company dedicated to the sale of seeds signed a collaboration contract with the

Polytechnic University of Valencia

(UPV) to develop an innovative

research project

in the

area of ​​biotechnology

that ended last October with a

sentence of 100,000 euros

for the public university for a

"deficient economic management"

.

According to the ruling of the Instruction Court number 4 of Valencia, the contractual agreement between the center and the

Sweet Seeds

company

stipulated that the works would be carried out for five years and that they would be

63% financed by the company

and the remaining 37% would be paid the University Institute for the Conservation and Improvement of Valencian Agrodiversity (

COMAV

), which also reserved a 7.5% canon on the income generated during the first year of commercial exploitation of the knowledge obtained with the project and, if the results were not commercialized in seven years, the

property rights

passed to the university.

The budget for the development of the project was set by the Politècnica itself and amounted to 301,183 euros, of which Sweet Seeds paid 188,597 euros plus VAT in five payments. However, as of the fourth year, the project had to be redefined because it was not achieving the proposed objectives. The company asked the professor in charge of the research,

José María Seguí

, the possibility of publishing the results as scientific articles, so that they could be considered as funders

of R & D & I projects

. The answer is that this would have an

extra cost

by having to pay publication fees to do it open. At that moment problems began to arise.

Sweet Seeds, which had already paid all of its part of the project, began to doubt the financial management and requested invoices and supporting

documentation of the expenses from the person

in charge, Professor Seguí, who, as the sentence indicates as proven, was not only the budget writer but also the "economic manager". In the document that he sent to the company, as the sentence corroborates,

unjustified expenses were hidden

such as the hiring of a worker who never worked in the investigation as well as 27,000 euros that the professor received as salary and that neither was They had not agreed or were listed in the contract.

Suspicions of irregularities led the seed sales company to request the intervention of the vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer,

José Capilla

, recently elected rector of the UPV. Invoices and bank account movements associated with the development of the project were required from him in order to corroborate that the funds contributed were being used in the project, and also that the UPV had also covered its 37%. There was no response, nor was there a burofax directed to

the Technology Transfer Center

to accredit the project expenses and appoint an expert to review and verify them. According to the complaint presented, the answer was given by the former rector of the UPV,

Francisco Mora

, alluding to the fact that it is the Audit Office of the Generalitat Valenciana who oversees the finances of public universities through annual audits under the direction of the General Audit of the Generalitat.

Lawsuit

Sweet Seeds was forced to claim the requested information in court and file a lawsuit to be compensated for damages. And it is that in the analysis of the independent expert in court it is proven that the funded research project had a real cost of 129,188.47 euros, and that the UPV should have contributed 112,000 and did not. Therefore, the court's ruling establishes that the company provided an

excess of financing

that amounted to 101,238.7 euros that, in addition, were not used in the project due to a

"defective control of spending

.

"

The professor responsible for the financial control of the project did not appear before the judge to explain his management, so the court based its ruling on the account of an independent expert.

"It is clear in the opinion of this court that the contract

was irregularly fulfilled in terms of its economic management

, not only being the obligations of the person in charge to carry out the agreed investigations, but also to coordinate what was carried out, invest the budget, so that It is proven that it was not carried out this way, "states the ruling, which adds that the purpose of the contract" is not only to carry out an investigation but that it is adjusted to what was calculated as a budget and not a final price, and that the amount paid is destined for the end of the project ".

As confirmed to El Mundo by the UPV, the sentence was not appealed because

"the interpretation of the judge was assumed"

, the 101,000 were paid to the company, in addition to taking charge of the costs and interest.

The

internal investigation

of the irregularities reported by the company

remains in your hands

.

In this regard, and during the campaign that has led him to the rectory, José Capilla promised to "always proceed with the utmost rigor and transparency. With equal treatment, guaranteed the presumption of innocence and seeking the best and fairest for the university Whenever necessary, the necessary

confidential information file will be

opened

to determine possible responsibilities ".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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