Since 2015, the Ministry of Finance has only denied 8 requests from former members of the Administration to work in the private company
The controversy over the compatibility authorization requested by the former minister Jose Luis Abalos to work as a talk show host at Mediaset has highlighted the divergence of opinions that he always plans when it comes to addressing the issue of ‘revolving doors’. But the Ábalos dossier is just one of the latest cases of former Spanish government officials requesting the approval of the Office of Conflicts of Interest (OCI), which depends on the Ministry of Finance, to work in the private company. The law 3/2015 that regulates the exercise of high office establishes, among other things, that those who have held these positions of responsibility may not provide services to private entities that have been affected by decisions in which they have participated during the two years following the date of his termination.
The OCI resolved a total of 353 requests from 195 former officials, such as former ministers Dolores de Cospedal, Christopher Montoro Y Ana Mato, or Sixte Chamber, the former president of the Port of Barcelona, between March 30, 2015, when the aforementioned Law 3/2015 came into force, and June 15, 2021, a few months before the Ábalos case came to this office. Of these 353 requests, 345, that is, the 97.7%, were authorized and 8, denied. These figures are not very high, since the majority of senior officials change their position, but they do not usually leave the public service.
The 8 ‘nots’
Among the 8 petitions denied, the case of Sixte Cambra, former president of the Port Authority of Barcelona (APB), who was unable to join the board of trustees of the Cares Foundation, of which the APB forms part and which the Chamber himself had chaired while he was in charge of the Port of Barcelona. Another of the requests denied was that of the Lieutenant General Ignacio Azqueta, former director general of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Azqueta requested authorization to work in the public relations department of the Airbus group, a company to which he had awarded contracts when he directed INTA.
Advice and consultancies, a recurring output
The list of destination companies for former senior managers is almost as long as the number of compatibility requests. But the tasks explicitly related to the advice and consultancy or with companies dedicated to this sector (especially in its economic, fiscal and legal aspects, but also technological, logistics, security or environmental) represent around a hundred of the 353 requests.
In this sense, cases such as Oriol Amat, former director of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), is one of the most outstanding in quantitative terms. Among the 24 authorizations obtained, Amat received the approval of the OCI to carry out at least 11 consultancies and analyze 10 annual accounts of various companies.Rafael Català, former Minister of Justice, with 2 of the 6 positive requests related to business advisory and consulting tasks, or the case of former president of Transport Engineering and Economics Isaac Martín-Barbero, with three authorized consultancies, are other examples of former senior managers who decided to redirect their professional careers in this field.
The Business Institute and the educational field
University education is a job opportunity for which several positions of high responsibility in the government also opt. Of the more than 20 applications to practice in the field of higher education, 9 of them were to work in the Business Institute (better known by its acronym IE), with a presence in more than 90 countries. the too CUNEF private university, based in Madrid, with 4 requests, is the second in this classification. They follow the Comillas Pontifical University, with three requests, or the University of Deusto and the European University of Madrid, with two authorization requests each.
Ernst and Young, Airbus and the English Court
As for the destination companies, Ernst and Young (EY) with 8 applications, is the firm that accumulates the most cases outside the education sector. Roman Escolano, former Minister of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness until 2018 and former secretaries of state Juan Pablo Risk (Employment), Miguel Ferré (Treasury) and Marta Fernández Curras (Budgets and Expenditures) These are the most outstanding cases in relation to the multinational dedicated to auditing and the world of finance, taxes and legal advice.
In the case of Airbus, the OCI authorized two of the requests. These are requests for Juan Antonio Carrasco, former head of the Joint Defense Staff, and Carlos Gómez-Múgica, former ambassador to Canada. As has been advanced in this article, the office rejected the request of the lieutenant general Ignatius Azqueta, former director general of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology until the end of 2017, to join the public relations department of the Airbus group. However, Azqueta did obtain authorization to work in a technology consulting company for which no further details have been provided.
The English court too It has a total of three applications. Luis Sanchez Gonzalez, who served as director of the financial and tax inspection department of the AEAT, Carlos Cabanas, former secretary general of Agriculture and Food and Carmen Alba, former government delegate in Navarra, obtained the authorizations to work in the company that manages the large chain of department stores between 2018 and 2019.
Finally, BBVA Y Cuatrecasas, third in this ranking, they are behind four of the requests (two per head). In the case of the law firm, the incorporation of Soraya Saenz de Santa Maria, vice president of the government of Mariano Rajoy, had a lot of echo, but Pedro Llorente, former Undersecretary of Employment and Social Security also obtained authorization to work at Cuatrecasas in March 2019. BBVA’s offers referred to cases of Daniel Navia, former Secretary of State for Energy, Y Pillar More, who acted as General Director of Economic Analysis.
The draft conflict of interest law
Related news
Manuel Villoria, professor of Political Science and Administration at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid and an expert on the subject, assures Verificat that it is necessary for the legislation to go further. “The amount of finance inspectors and state attorneys who enter and leave the administration and go to organizations and companies with which they have had a relationship during their public office are a major problem“, affirms the professor in relation to these intermediate categories that are not affected by the limitations of senior positions. A reality, says Villoria, that could change with the Preliminary draft law on the prevention of conflicts of interest of personnel in the service of the public sector, which is still pending final wording, according to sources from the Ministry of Finance.
Who are high officials?
The category of senior government officials includes a wide range of responsibilities within the State Administration. This is the complete list:
-The members of the Government and the Secretaries of State.
-The Undersecretaries and assimilated; the Secretaries General; the Government Delegates in the Autonomous Communities and in Ceuta and Melilla; the Government Delegates in Public Law entities; and the heads of permanent diplomatic mission, as well as the heads of permanent representation before international organizations.
-The Technical General Secretaries, General Directors of the General State Administration and similar.
-The Presidents, the Vice Presidents, the General Directors, the Executive Directors and assimilated in entities of the state, administrative, foundational or business public sector, linked or dependent on the General Administration of the State that have the status of maximum responsible and whose appointment is made by decision of the Council of Ministers or by their own governing bodies and, in any case, the Presidents and Directors with the rank of Director General of the Social Security Managing Entities and Common Services; the Presidents and Directors of the State Agencies, the Presidents and Directors of the Port Authorities and the President and the Secretary General of the Economic and Social Council.
-The President, the Vice President and the rest of the members of the Council of the National Markets and Competition Commission, the President of the Council of Transparency and Good Governance, the President of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility, the President, Vice President and the Members of the Council of the National Securities Market Commission, the President, the Directors and the Secretary General of the Nuclear Safety Council, as well as the President and members of the governing bodies of any other regulatory or supervisory body.
-The Directors, Executive Directors, General Secretaries or equivalent of the regulatory and supervisory bodies.
-The holders of any other job in the state public sector, whatever their denomination, whose appointment is made by the Council of Ministers, with the exception of those who are considered Deputy General Directors and similar.