Government to create fund for former officials in Court of Auditors case

After months of negotiation and internal debate, the Government has finally created a risk fund to deal with the case of the Court of Auditors. It is a "complementary risk fund for the Generalitat", which is designed to act when private insurance companies contracted by the Catalan Government do not respond in cases where public workers and high-ranking officials are involved. As ARA has explained, acting as guarantor was finally discarded and the chosen formula is more similar to an insurance provider. The initial endowment is €10m.

It will be set up through a decree-law approved by the executive council, meaning it will have to be endorsed by the Catalan Parliament within a period of one month. "The Government has approved this decree-law that means that the fund is launched to cover a series of risks that right now were not included in the policies the Generalitat had taken out", explained the Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, who has been in charge of preparing the formula.

It has specified that as long as a managing entity of this fund is not established, the one who will perform this function on a provisional basis will be the Catalan Institute of Finance. Giró has remarked that not anyone will be able to use it: that there cannot be any final court decision declaring the actions of a public servant unlawful, which is not covered by another policy and that the Generalitat has not taken any disciplinary or judicial action against the person concerned. "These are very specific and restrictive conditions", Giró said, adding that anyone who wants to be a beneficiary of the fund will have to make an application to the Catalan Institute of Finance, accompanied by a complementary argumentation and a responsible statement proving they meet the conditions for access to the fund.