The Generalitat finds irregularities in the diets and deficiencies in the finances of the IJC from the Esteller stage
A report from the General Intervention also detects splitting of minor contracts in the exercise of 2023
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 theFinal financial control report made by the Generalitat after ARA revealed the transfers of money and impersonations at the research institute during Esteller's tenure.
The report, which the ARA accessed 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 an initial audit commissioned by the Foundation itself had detected numerous irregularities.
The report, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, which chairs the board of the research center, focuses exclusively on the 2023 fiscal year and concludes that a million euros were worked into the budget that did not exist and is attributed to a "material error". According to the audit, this money was budgeted by the then center manager, attributing it to the Ministry of Health, but the administration never approved the contribution.
In that exercise there were “significant deficiencies” in diets 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 tickets and invoices, some of which are not justifiable 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 Generalitat's regulations 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," the report points out. Consequently, the IJC responds that it has developed 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 contracts linked to each other and their 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 research institute itself. Therefore, it questions whether this activity complies with incompatibility regulations. 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 of 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 have been 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 for these operations does not contribute resources, but obtains returns from them. 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.