The Generalitat finds irregularities in the allowances and deficiencies in the finances of the IJC from the Esteller stage

BarcelonaThe Josep Carreras Research Institute (IJC) suffered “significant deficiencies” that “have led or may lead to irregularities” in the financial management of 2023, under the direction of cancer researcher Manel Esteller. This is the conclusion of the Definitive Financial Control Report prepared by the Generalitat after ARA revealed the transfers of money and impersonations at the research institute during Esteller's tenure.

Definitive Financial Control Report prepared by the Generalitat after ARA revealed the transfers of money and impersonations at the research institute during Esteller's tenure.

The report, to which ARA has had access through the transparency law, has only audited public money from the Catalan government intended for the center's basic funding, but not that granted by the Josep Carreras Foundation. It is in the use of this private funding that a first audit commissioned by the Foundation itself had detected numerous irregularities.

The report, commissioned by the Department of Health, whose board of trustees chairs the research center, focuses exclusively on the 2023 fiscal year and concludes that a million euros were worked with in the budget that did not materialize and is attributed to a “material error”. According to the audit, this money was budgeted by the then center manager, attributing it to the Department of Health, but the administration never approved the contribution.

In that fiscal year, there were “significant deficiencies” in allowances and expenses incurred by Esteller as director. According to the report, in nine cases, expenses were incurred without the authorization of the IJC foundation, corresponding to a meal with several people for 603 euros and a hotel stay for 2,219 euros in the United States. Among these expenses are also several for taxis in Catalonia, with amounts ranging from 127 to 317 euros per trip. “There is a significant volume of taxi receipts and invoices, some of which are unjustifiable because public transport could have been used to avoid contravening the protocol,” says the Generalitat.

In two cases, the expense amounts exceed what is established by law. One of these refers to two nights in Florence for a cost of 6,283 euros. The regulations of the Generalitat stipulate that the maximum for a stay in Europe is 303 euros per night. In the second case, it is a meal for eight people in North America for a cost of 591 euros. The legal maximum per person is 50 euros. Furthermore, this meal includes alcoholic beverages, and this "contravenes what is established in the IJC's travel and diet protocol", points out the report. Consequently, the IJC responds that it has elaborated a travel policy, approved last March, which regulates these matters "in accordance with current legislation".

Likewise, the text states that in 2023 there were indications of fragmentation in almost half of the institution's minor contracts. These are a series of interconnected contracts and the total amount exceeds the threshold for minor contracting set by law. The IJC responds that it will create an internal working group to "regularize the contracting of these services".

The report also detects a company – which has invoiced the IJC – one of whose partners is an employee of the same research institute. For this reason, it questions whether this activity complies with the regulations on incompatibilities. At the time of responding to the report, the IJC states that the researcher will soon stop working for the institution. Likewise, the IJC affirms that it "is working on the creation of a technical team to evaluate and optimize the joint contracting process for these services".

Operations without government agreement

Another of the detected deficiencies refers to Tax Equity operations – a mechanism for research institutes to obtain financing in exchange for tax deductions for the investor–. According to the IJC, four "facilitator" companies have been created to attract these private investments in research projects. In all cases, the deals were made with the participation of the Adastra Ventures fund. When the projects end, the companies are acquired by the IJC Foundation, an operation "that does not comply with any of the assumptions" provided for in the Catalan science law.

"It seems that the sole objective of the operation is to obtain extraordinary financing for the IJC in exchange for benefiting a third-party investor," the report highlights. It is detected that the "facilitator" company in these operations does not contribute resources, but obtains returns. All this has been carried out without the necessary government agreement from the Generalitat. The IJC responds that it does not plan to carry out more operations of this type.