Hardly a days seems to go by when the headlines of the media are not dominated by alleged fraud, misappropriation, financial misdeeds or other cases of alleged corruption, covering every sphere of life from the royal family down through central, regional, provincial and local municipal governments.
Following a series of allegations that the UGT union may have illegally obtained money from the Andalucia government, the head of the regional UGT, Francisco Fernández Sevilla, has resigned.
The resignation comes one day after the regional government of Susana Díaz announced that it was reviewing files containing information relating to 7.5 million euros in subsidies and aid handed to the UGT in Andalucia over the past few years.
A new secretary general for the Andalucia chapter will be elected during a special meeting on January 9th 2014.
According to a preliminary review by Díaz’s Socialist government, the UGT chapter may have to return some 1.8 billion euros it received in 2009. The UGT has so far returned 25,000 euros it received in subsidies for a lunch and meeting it organised at the Sevilla Fair.
Must have been some lunch!
A separate investigation into the UGT is being carried out in Sevilla by Judge Mercedes Alaya as part of an ongoing inquiry into alleged embezzlement from a special layoff fund set up by the Junta de Andalucia to help ailing businesses pay severance to their workers.