Alberto Núñez Feijóo has failed to comply with a June 27 request from Senate President, Socialist Ander Gil, when he asked the PP leader to update his wealth and income statement registered in the Upper House and specify how much he is asking for his party’s leader. Gil gave Feijóo until Tuesday to amend the document, which was presented in May 2022 when he was given the post of regional senator, but the opposition leader has not done so. The compensation Feijóo received from the PP is still not officially listed in the statement, although the amount – 39,260 euros gross last year – is known since he decided to publish it in the media on June 28 . “The lack of transparency is one of the causes that generate society’s dissatisfaction and disbelief in the institutions. And to send the message to the public that one is above the rules and only within that the law abounds,” rebuked the president of the Senate, the fourth authority in Spain, in a statement released on Wednesday.
After Feijóo insisted for days that he refused to make public how much money he makes from the party, the PP leadership off the hook and told the media a week ago, a day after Gil made his application that the popular president received 39,260 gross euros, taxable, last year. However, Feijóo did not include this information in the assets and income statement registered in the Senate. Furthermore, this amount does not represent the people’s leader’s total salary – classified by management as a “representation expense” – as he only served as the party’s supreme authority from April to December in 2022; That said, this year is expected to cost more as it is a full year. “The data we presented is similar to what the previous party leader had received,” Feijóo said at a press conference in Brussels last Thursday. His predecessor Pablo Casado declared in Congress in 2019 that he had received a net salary of 47,720 euros from the PP.
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In Wednesday’s statement, the President of the Senate insists Feijóo violates Article 26 of the Senate Rules and Article 160 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG). “It must be remembered that the one-week deadline specified in the letter was nothing more than a homage to your honor by this Presidency, since the obligation of all Senators is established by the regulations.” [y] is to amend the statement of assets, wealth and income without undue delay if the circumstances change from those originally stated at the time of taking possession,” affirms Ander Gil. The Senate Rules do not provide for a penal code for parliamentarians who do not comply with their rules, so the Chamber’s President, adding in his letter today, can only state that “Senator Núñez Feijóo deviates from the Rules in this case.” Commitments which he entered into in his capacity as an official”. “Therefore, this presidency can only emphasize these facts before public opinion,” he notes.
PP leadership sources indicate that the amount Feijóo receives from the party is for “representation expenses” and not as a separate salary. This designation is not new, as it has been collected as such since the time of former governor and PP José María Aznar. However, it has been shown in the past that these “representation expenses” were paid in 14 payments including two extra payments, as is usual with regular salaries.
According to Article 26 of the Senate Rules and Article 160 of the LOREG, senators are “obliged to make a declaration of assets and a declaration of assets”. The same provision states in Section 2: “Both declarations must be made at the commencement of their term of office as a condition of attainment of senatorial status and also within thirty calendar days of loss.” said condition. or the change in circumstances originally stated”. The PP thus accepts the first meaning of Article 26.2. of the Ordinance (“within thirty calendar days of the lapse of this condition”) and ensures that Feijóo’s statement is amended after the Senate’s permanent representation is dissolved and he moves into Congress as an MP, and the following August 17 general election from 23-J.
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However, the President of the Senate responds in his letter today that a 2011 joint agreement between the bodies of Congress and the Senate stipulates that representatives and senators must file declarations of assets and income not only when acquiring and losing their positions.” whenever the circumstances change compared to those originally declared.” And he points out that it was Feijóo himself who, in an interview on June 19, acknowledged this change in his remuneration.
In addition, Gil claims that Feijóo violates Law 19/2013 on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance, which stipulates in Article 8 that public officials must publish “at least the information related to the actions of administrative management with economic or budgetary implications set out below”, including “the annual remuneration of senior positions and maximum executives of the companies included in the scope of the application”. Its scope also includes political parties. The PP website does not specify how much Feijóo receives from the party.
Accessed by this newspaper, the Council for Transparency and Good Governance, an independent public body, sent a formal letter to the PP in March this year, which reported that it had “received a letter stating deficiencies became”. This political party’s website provides information related to the publication related to the remuneration of senior leaders within the meaning of Law 19/2013, of December 9, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance. . She added that this information had not been “identified” after consulting her website and shared it “for the purposes she deemed appropriate”. The letter responded to a complaint from the Público newspaper, which found that the PP had not published the salaries of its top leaders on its website for months, and furthered the independent body’s response.
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