The fraud of the training courses of the Board: millionaire funds without controls

• Trial Former senior officials of the Board disassociate themselves from fraud and the 'plugs' in the Almonte consortium that taught courses with subsidies

• Training The 'queen' Melchor of course fraud paid astronomical salaries to her son and nephew for 'ghost' tasks

• Testimony The 'queen' Melchor of the fraud of the courses blames the high officials of the Board in the trial: "Everyone knew it"

The late Javier Guerrero, the former general director of Labor and Social Security of the Junta de Andalucía in the PSOE stage and the main defendant in the ERE corruption case, released him to judge Mercedes Alaya in 2013 that his piggy bank, the

, it was nothing compared to the money spent on training courses.

If he had on average, according to what he said, 54 million euros to distribute, the training meant 290 million a year, more than five times more.

Indeed, the training courses have monopolized

over the years and, like the ERE, have been a focus of corruption.

In the trial that is being held these days in the Court of Seville for the diversion of public funds destined for courses in the Formades consortium of the Huelva town of Almonte, it has also become clear that astronomical figures were handled.

Without controls and with the high officials of the Board in charge of supervising them looking the other way.

A report from the Chamber of Accounts provides revealing data that gives an idea of ​​the magnitude of public money that was allocated to training.

Only during the years 2008 and 2009, 23,922,733 euros and 20,646,023 euros, respectively, were granted to the

integrated in the network of Consortium Training School for Employment of the Junta de Andalucía.

Formades was one of them.

Apart from these public entities, the Andalusian Government distributed millionaire funds, in the form of subsidies, to unions, foundations and entities of all kinds for training.

The consortia thing was only a small part.

In the trial of the Court of Seville, the former managing director of the Formades consortium Ana María Orihuela, former councilor of Almonte, also known as Queen Melchor, since she dressed as a

man in the parade of Almonte del 2009 and charged all costs to the Board's course grants.

She is accompanied on the bench by her son and her nephew, both plugged into the Formades consortium, and a veterinarian, who charged invoices amounting to 408,232.18 euros between November 2007 and May 2012.

Throughout these days, it has been possible to hear in the trial how the person in charge of the consortium handled

at will and how a good part of the public budget ended up in the pocket of her relatives.

Her son invoiced in just over three years a total of 452,895.82 euros for alleged maintenance work and as a stable boy, since in Formades there were horses for the courses.

How was it possible that the alarms did not go off? Who should control these expenses?

The consortium periodically sent the

, but nobody there realized what was happening.

Nor did he notice the high position of Employment that appeared as president of the governing council of the consortium in which the budgets were approved.

The General Directorate of Training monopolized the "second largest budget" of the Andalusian Government, but there was

to supervise these expenses, according to Teresa Florido, former general director of Vocational Training for Employment of the Board.

Former senior officials, sideways

His predecessor in the post, Andrés Sánchez,

from the alleged fraud, in the face of insistent questions from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Fernando Soto.

"I had a lot of work and I'm not going to be on top of everything," he came to say.

The other former director general who testified as a witness, Manuel Brenes, also threw

and explained that he only went to the Formades governing council once and that the official who was entrusted with the supervision of this entity was "impossible" to dedicate himself to visiting and control the fourteen consortiums attached to the Board in the eight provinces.

These centers also enjoyed "certain autonomy," explained the former senior official.

The lack of control that reigned in these public bodies has also been revealed by the civil guards who have investigated the case.

In the trial, one of them reported that the consortiums operated "without control" until 2013, when

of the Ministry of Employment were transferred to the Ministry of Education and that is when they began to analyze "in depth" the documentation provided by these entities and up to "50 reimbursement files" of said subsidies were initiated.

In any case, the Formades consortium was not the only one in which there was alleged corruption.

EL MUNDO has been reporting since 2014 on other diversions of public funds in this type of public entity.

Thus, for example, the consortium of the Sevillian town of Gelves - the Artisan Training School - bought

with a subsidy for the courses.

The Investigating Court 6 of Seville was also investigating the

consortium , which between 2002 and 2013 received 48,762,991.14 euros in aid for training.

The consortium, which was built with a grant of 21,215,650.52 euros, was paralyzed for several years.

The judicial investigations, in which several former senior members of the Board were charged, were finally filed last year.

The case that is still being processed in the Investigating Court 6 of Seville is the one referred to the CTI Consortium of the Cadiz town of San Fernando.

The judge who inherited this case from Alaya is analyzing the 6.5 million in subsidies received by this center, which used the controversial Faffe, to teach courses.

Meanwhile, the alleged corruption of the Almonte consortium will continue to surface these days in the Court.

The trial is scheduled to continue until the

.

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Know more

• Seville

• mercedes alaya

• PSOE

• ERE case

• Corruption

Courts Justice opens the door to recover the full loot of the ERE

Corruption A key Invercaria trial begins: the Board gave almost 2 million to businessmen linked to the PSOE

Courts The 'queen' Melchor of the fraud of the courses blames the high officials of the Board in the trial: "Everyone knew it"

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