The Parliament approves the report on the DGAIA that confirms years of irregularities

BarcelonaAfter nine months, fifteen sessions and up to fifty appearances, this Tuesday the Parliament has approved part of the report of the investigation committee on the activity of the Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) between the years 2011 and 2025. The committee was created, among other things, due to the case of the minor protected by the DGAIA who was a victim of sexual abuse between 2020 and 2021 and which led to the refounding and renaming of the service by the Government.

The conclusions and improvement proposals of the committee, which show years of irregularities, have been approved by the narrowest of margins and only two days after the now former minister Mònica Martínez Bravo left office for personal reasons. This Tuesday, therefore, her replacement, Raúl Moreno, has already experienced the vote as the new head of the Department of Social Rights.

The votes of PSC, ERC and Comuns have allowed most parts of the text to go forward, which has been rejected by Junts, PP, Vox, CUP and Aliança. However, the Catalan chamber has not incorporated one of the points validated by the committee, which urged to "eliminate the opaque profit margin" from outsourcing. The rejected part of the text also proposed an "absolute, transparent and comprehensive control of every public euro destined for children" and established that before the end of the year the Government must have the “process of public determination of the estimates, tariffs and real costs of the contracted services”. In this regard, a part of the report has been approved which denounces that the majority of DGAIA residential centers are managed by external companies and criticizes that the administration “cannot limit itself to financing places and referring children”. Furthermore, it urges to “fully assume public management” of the service.

"Overwhelmed system"

Among what the chamber has approved is the finding that the DGAIA had an "overwhelmed system", which has operated "from the logic of emergency". It has also been concluded that it already "carried prior structural conditions" to the "extraordinary increase" in assistance it has absorbed in recent years. In fact, the text recalls that since 2015 there was a 84% increase in cases to be attended at the DGAIA, with an increase in the number of supervised minors in Catalonia of 71%. All of this, as the text underlines, has not been accompanied by an increase in resources.

Given this scenario, the Parliament has concluded that the DGAIA presented "structural and governance problems" that limited "its response capacity to the detriment of the rights of children and adolescents". Furthermore, it has also been warned that "structural challenges" accumulated over time regarding planning, financing, resource provision, and adaptation capacity in the face of extraordinary increases in service demand.

The commission, which has investigated the situation of the DGAIA for nine months, also denounces that "too little and too late" has been invested in supporting families, proximity services, community intervention, mental health, educational leisure, school, housing, and social accompaniment. On the other hand, the Catalan chamber has also endorsed part of the commission's report, which points out how "cuts in investments and social budgets from the convergent stage, along with the outsourcing policy" contributed to "sustained pressure for so long" on the DGAIA.

Finally, the report has also identified an "existing gap" between contracted workers and administration workers for "doing the same job", for which an "urgent" salary equalization is requested, as this implies "high turnover" and "difficulty" in finding qualified personnel, among other things. Finally, the report also identifies "differences in criteria between territories, lack of homogeneous protocols, and coordination problems between services and centers".

Opposition and partners call on Illa for more government changes

The same day that Parliament approved the report of the investigation committee on the DGAIA's activity, President Salvador Illa appeared to explain the change at the head of the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion after thanking "the work done" by the until now head of the department, Mònica Martínez Bravo, who has been replaced by her number 2, Raúl Moreno. "It is a change of minister, not of policies," he reiterated. Illa defended the "stability" of his government after the reshuffle, but pointed out that "there are personal and contextual circumstances that may require adaptation." In this regard, he was categorical in avoiding talk of a crisis. "In my government, few shocks," he concluded.

These arguments have not convinced either the partners or the opposition, who have called for a more profound reshuffle, recalling the calls for resignation or the reprimands of other members of his executive. The most forceful was Mònica Sales, from Junts: "The problem is not a ministry, it is the mismanagement of an agonizing government that is a mess," she stated, although she also stressed that Moreno was "the minister's right-hand man and is co-responsible for the department's mismanagement."

Josep Maria Jové, from ERC, also demanded "a more profound reshuffle" and referred to the reprimands of ministers that Illa has not heeded "without complying with Parliament's resolutions." "Change the faces that need to be changed, with the budgets approved, they have no more excuses, the doubt is whether they have the most suitable people to do it," he added. The other government partner, the commons, have limited themselves to demanding that "the social transformations that the country needs" be accelerated, stated Jéssica Albiach.

Lorena Roldán, from the PP, accused Illa of taking advantage of the celebration of Spain's victory in the World Cup to make the change in the ministry. "The minister is leaving through the back door, without giving any explanation," she added to demand a change of policies. Ignacio Garriga (Vox) denounced that the change is occurring with the conclusions of the DGAIA reform or the report on waiting lists on the table.

The CUP councilor Maria Pilar Castillejo, for her part, has regretted that “the lightning-fast replacement transmits that her Government is floundering with resignations and reprimands of councilors and with strikes around the corner”, while Rosa Maria Soberana, from Aliança, has concluded that “it is not a dismissal, it is an escape of a councilor who lived in “paid absenteeism”.