A Barcelona City Council employee accused of embezzling social assistance money

BarcelonaA Barcelona City Council employee allegedly diverted social assistance funds to bank accounts other than those intended for them. According to Catalunya Ràdio and confirmed by municipal sources consulted by ARA, the employee is from the Municipal Institute of Social Services (IMSS), who has been subject to disciplinary proceedings and has already been suspended from her duties and removed from her job. The city council, which has not specified the amount allegedly diverted, has already brought the case to court.

The City Council has concluded that there is "solid evidence" pointing to the misappropriation of funds after conducting an "exhaustive internal review," city council sources explain. They also maintain that they are "completely certain that this was an isolated incident and that the person acted alone."

The same sources say that new procedures had been implemented to "identify, document, analyze, optimize, plan, and monitor the different key processes" at the IMSS, where 1,500 people work, and that the IT systems plan and aid regulations have been updated. In this regard, they maintain that the possible misappropriation of funds was detected thanks to the systems that had been activated.

Juntos demands explanations

The news of this case has already sparked reactions among opposition groups. The leader of Junts per Barcelona, ​​Jordi Martí Galbis, considered this episode to be "extremely serious," not only because of the diversion of public resources but also because they should have been intended for vulnerable people. "While we await explanations from Jaume Collboni's government, what we can see is the weakness of the municipal internal control systems," he said.