The Generalitat Valenciana has sanctioned the secretary-controller of the Benitatxell City Council, Jesús Castro, for refusing to pay invoices approved by the Local Government Board. He is also accused of hindering the operation of municipal services.
This is reflected in a final resolution of the General Directorate of Local Administration, after the opening of a disciplinary file last April 2021. According to the document, two sanctions are imposed.
On the one hand, the suspension of functions for 6 months for the "commission of a lack of open disobedience to the orders or instructions of a superior" for refusing "to pay, as responsible for the Municipal Intervention, certain invoices […] with express denial to the written requirements of the Presidency Mayor’s Office.”
Secondly, a sanction of dismissal from his job as Secretary-Controller of the City Council of El Poble Nou de Benitatxell was imposed on him, as it was shown that "he has been carrying out a permanent obstacle to the normal functioning of municipal public services, preparing reports (especially objections in its auditing function) outside the ordinary deadlines of good administrative practice, and without justifying or demonstrating the causes of said delays”.
This decision of the General Directorate became effective yesterday, Monday, when the City Council officially notified Jesús Castro of his definitive dismissal from the municipal staff. The sanctioned official must seek a destination in another municipality, once he has completed the period of suspension that has been imposed on him.
The municipal government team regrets having had to reach this outcome. The current managers of the Consistory value municipal employees as the main asset that the City Council has, since, without them, public services could not function. However, in this case, the persistent attitude of the former secretary left no option for the municipal and regional administrations.
The motivation of the government to request the initiation of disciplinary proceedings
The municipal government team asked the General Directorate of Local Administration to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Castro in an extraordinary plenary session in December 2020. The events date back to October 28, 2020, the day a Local Government Board was held that included the approval of a list of invoices. As there was no record of any Intervention objection formulated in a timely manner, the payment of the invoices was unanimously approved by the attendees.
However, the next day, the intervening secretary stated that he had no intention of sending the bank transfers and, subsequently, he ignored the payment order issued by the Mayor's Office. Fulfilling his threat, on November 3, he refused to sign the remittance of bank transfers and, finally, on November 4, he prepared a document with the title 'Reparos Report', in which he expressed his disagreement with the approval of those invoices.
The report was prepared seven days after the Governing Board agreed to the approval, which is a "flagrant violation" of article 215 of the Local Treasury Law, which requires that the objection be formulated prior to the adoption of the agreement.
The local government also denounced several similar actions by Castro in other administrative procedures, as well as the "generalized paralysis" that he was causing in the operation of the City Council, with unjustified obstacles to habitual and ordinary procedures to which he had not raised any objection during the mandate. of the former corporations.
