Transport states that Ábalos did not charge 500,000 euros in diets but the minister’s trips and his delegation were expenses | Spain
The Ministry of Transport erroneously attributed to José Luis ábalos during his first two years as responsible for that department, he never received. This is the conclusion achieved by the department now led by óscar Puente After receiving a request from the magistrate of the Supreme Court investigating ábalos On the alleged collection by over 500,000 euros in “Exempt income and exempted diets”. The transport sources point out that these amounts refer to the expenses caused by all the members of the delegation that accompanied the minister in his travels, but, in the years 2018 and 2019, the transport staff has badly interpreted the financial regulations and understood that the declarations of the travel expenses of the high positions were equivalent to the files of the diet of the rest of the ministry.
The request for information on the Supreme Instructor replied to a letter sent on Tuesday by the Central Operations Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard by the information provided by the tax agency within the framework of the investigations open to Ábalos. According to the agents, the data sent by the Ministry of the Treasury included that from Central paying in cash of the Ministry of Transport, two payments were recorded to the former minister, corresponding to the years 2018 and 2019, for amounts of 156,440.29 (year 2018) and 351,992.72 Euros (2019) who are outside the Payroll received as head of the Department.
Both games appear described by the treasure under the generic concept of “exempt income and exempt from taxes”. But those incomes, according to UCO, “would not have had an identifiable reflection in any of the Caixabank bank accounts” located by the Civil Guard as corresponding to Áballos, so the agents asked the judge to ask to transport detailed information on these payments and the magistrate agreed on Wednesday on this request
After learning about the passage taken by the instructor, the sources of the defense of Ábalos stressed that the former minister denies having received that money and explained that these income could be related to the expenses related to the travels they made (as flights and hotels) and the officials who accompanied him. The information collected by Transport confirm this version.
According to a note disclosed by the Department directed by Oscar Puente, these expenses are connected to the name of Ábalos, “but reflect the total cost of all members of the travel” of their delegation. This is due to the fact that the trips of the ministers are managed by the compensation regime established in article 8 of the Royal Decree 462/2002, which regulates compensation due to the service and which establishes that all the expenses caused by the members of the delegation that accompany the holder of the Department in travel (such as escorts, communication staff and other officials) are attributed to the ministers.
Transport guarantees that these amounts have mainly been paid to the Ministry’s travel agency, which is the one that manages the issue of airline tickets or trains and accommodation costs (hotel reservations). There is another small part of the expenditure that is paid in cash as an advance and which is subsequently justified with all the invoices corresponding to the payments actually made, explains the department that directs Puente, which guarantees that, in general, in these transfers to current accounts they are never carried out.
