World
UCO report points to hiring without a competition at the Faffe and also reaches former executives
According to a police report filed in the case in Seville, several former leaders of the foundation admitted they reached their posts without tests or selection processes. The documentation reviewed by the Civil Guard also found contradictions between those testimonies and the labor files.
A report by the Civil Guard’s Central Operative Unit (UCO) filed with Seville’s Court of Instruction No. 6 says the hiring system at the now-defunct Andalusian Foundation for Training and Employment (Faffe) operated with criteria closer to direct appointment than to open competition, according to ABC.
According to the 231-page report, delivered on July 29 to relief magistrate José Ignacio Vilaplana, the investigation examines the allegedly arbitrary hiring of 84 people linked to the PSOE and the UGT and CCOO unions, as well as the irregular justification of subsidies intended for training courses for unemployed people in Andalusia.
Also according to ABC, the Civil Guard took testimony as witnesses from eight former executives who took part in selection processes. Several of them said there were internal protocols to ensure publicity and transparency, but the review of 10 labor files sent by the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE) led agents to point to contradictions between those accounts and the official documentation.
Among the cases cited is that of María del Rosario B. F., former Faffe manager in Huelva between 2007 and 2011 and sister-in-law of Fernando Villén. According to the report released by ABC, she said that some processes required tests and interviews, but the UCO indicated that in the file of Purificación P. P. there is no public call, generic offer to the SAE, curriculum scoring, objective test or personal interview. In her testimony, moreover, the former executive herself acknowledged that she did not go through any selection process to access management posts and that her appointment in 2003 came after a phone call from Antonio Jiménez Cuenca.
The same information includes the testimony of José Antonio V., former head of Faffe in Seville, who admitted that he did not take part in any selection process, either to enter as a technician or to become manager. Regarding another hiring, that of Mónica F. F., daughter-in-law of Carmen Mejías, the UCO said it found no SAE offer or record of an interview in the file, despite the former manager’s assertion that the processes complied with the established requirements.
ABC added that the case, opened in 2016, still has 21 former employees and suppliers under investigation for alleged offenses of misconduct in office and embezzlement. Faffe operated between 2003 and 2011 and managed nearly 300 million euros in public funds. The investigation also includes Fernando Villén Rueda, former general director of the entity and former secretary for Employment in the executive of the Andalusian PSOE, who was sentenced to five years in prison for using the foundation’s bank cards to pay for services in brothels.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
