Mandatory accountability of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albarez, and Defense, Margarita Robles, over their use of funds allocated for withheld expenditures was delayed. Both appearances still have no date in sight, despite the minister being … Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska went to Congress on October 28, two weeks ago.
Both Albarés and Robles were reluctant to follow suit and continue to stall despite the fact that, as was the case with Grande-Marlaska, they had never asked to appear before the commission until October to take control of the funds allocated to the issue. The law stipulates that these clarifications are mandatory before the Council every six months, and although no government has implemented them at this pace, obligatory ministers do them approximately once a year.
Paris’s request to appear before the Committee of Secrets to explain the seized funds dates back to October 24 – when the Grand Marlaska’s request was actually called. More than two weeks have passed since then, but the aforementioned committee had not held any session by the time the report was published, according to the Congress website. The Foreign Ministry did not want to answer the question of when this accountability would take place. The choice of day depends on the minister’s agenda.
The defense also did not want to answer when its minister would provide clarifications. Robles’ request to appear was filed approximately a week after Albarez’s, on October 30, two days after Grande-Marlaska filed his request. The Secretary of Defense’s request was qualified this Tuesday by the House of Congress, which gave freedom to set a date that should already be approximate, as this department confirmed to the ABC in recent weeks that the delay in the request to appear was due specifically to the fact that they were trying to set a date.
PP request
Robles’ failure to comply with his statutory mandate to explain to Congress the use of the seized funds is twofold, as the Department of Defense has a budget for classified work and, in addition, is politically responsible for the Center for National Intelligence, which also has classified funds.
Albarés and Robles were forced to request an appearance when Grande-Marlaska took this step, after this newspaper reported on October 5 that none of these three ministers – the three committed – had ever asked to go to Congress to explain what they were using the reserved funds for. The Public Prosecutor requested the appearance of the three on October 7, and the Minister of Interior decided to register the request to appear at his request the next day, on October 8.
The law stipulates that they must provide explanations to Congress every six months, and as of October, no one had ever requested that.
Since becoming Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albarez has never gone to the Secretaries Committee. Robles and Interior appeared twice until 2022 for other reasons, and according to the Presidency, they took advantage of these appearances to provide “data” on the seized funds, but there is no evidence that this is a point worth discussing.
The law regulating the use of reserved funds is very clear, and until Pedro Sánchez’s legislatures, all governments without exception have asked to voluntarily go to Congress to comply with the mandate to clarify how these funds will be spent. This law was approved by the last government of Felipe Gonzalez, in 1995, to try to restore some of the confidence of citizens and prevent the recurrence of corruption scandals such as those of Luis Roldan, Felisa, or Gal. All of them were involved in the criminal use of the budget allocated for the seized expenses.
To date, the last impeachment of all ministers with a budget for reserved expenses and in accordance with the law took place in 2017, while Mariano Rajoy was still in Moncloa.
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