Jaume –fictitious name– is a Labor and Social Security inspector, a high-ranking State official in Barcelona. Companies and entrepreneurs, employees and unions are his day-to-day. Media between them. And he decides about them. In exchange, he receives a salary of about 3,200 euros net per month.
Is it little? Among his colleagues there is not much leave. “What for?” he wonders. Known cases are “exceptional”, most for family reasons, he explains.
In other higher bodies of the State it is not the same. Leave of absence abounds, and to a large extent to end up in the private company where they even act against the interests of the State.
It happened with the international lawsuits to Spain for the cuts to renewables. And it happens today: the staff on leave among the elite of officials for a private interest is about 15% in several key bodies. At least.
And here the at least is important. And not for good. He is quoted by Carles Ramió, professor of political science and administration at Pompeu Fabra University: “I don’t have this information [about senior officials on leave of absence in the private sector], since it is difficult to obtain. I have always used indirect sources that spontaneously offered some data”.
But he himself points out, however, that beyond the specific figure it has always existed and has always been significant in specific bodies: “State lawyers stand out, and the Treasury inspectors are far behind, but it also happens with State commercial technicians. ”.
It speaks from experience. Detailed official data year by year is scarce. But last March the Ministry of Justice included those of the State lawyers in the Official State Gazette. No surprises. Of a body of 663 lawyers, today almost half do not practice as such. 263 due to voluntary leave (39.6%) and 46 in special services in various public institutions (6.9%).
Jaime Alfonsín, head of the Casa del Rey since 2014, is an example of the latter case. Pablo Isla, former CEO of Inditex, was one of the first. However, anonymous people abound here.
From the Association of Treasury Inspectors, for its part, La Vanguardia is admitted that “we know that there are 15-18%” who take advantage of this figure among its around 1,800 members, the “vast majority” to exercise in the private company, they continue, despite not being able to give an exact figure. And they insist: “Among the state lawyers there are many more, especially to go to private companies.”
Among the lawyers of the Council of State, a small and prestigious body, for example, five of 38 (13%) are on voluntary leave of absence for private interests according to the institution itself.
The association of commercial technicians and economists of the State tells this newspaper that it does not have the information.
Further, the phenomenon is clearly repeated.
“It is a hypothesis, but the trend increased when the large public companies were privatized and some Ibex multinationals became. These found in the high officials of the State a deposit of managers. From that moment on, there has been a certain promiscuous relationship between large companies and large bodies of the State” indicates Ramió. And wages, which are multiplying in the private sector, seem like an obvious reason for it to stay that way.
Furthermore, Jorge Crespo, professor of political science and administration at the Complutense University of Madrid and a specialist in the field, recalls that “since the foundations of the contemporary Spanish civil service were created in the 19th century, there has always been a great need to incorporate talent into the Administration at a time when said talent, or qualification, was a very scarce commodity. A way has been sought to commit these personnel to the Administration, giving them a frequently privileged status”, he details.
A “privilege” that continues today.
Last year the Executive prepared and published the draft bill to regulate and prevent these conflicts of interest. To reform the norm in force, which is from 1984, and by which the official is forced to chain at least five years of public exercise before being able to request the leave of absence for private interest but then nobody controls what is done in it.
It has not gone any further. She continues to wait.
The Ministry of Finance and Public Function sums it up like this: “We continue to work on that standard. We have to wait until the internal work is finished to see how it finally looks. Sorry, no information on a date.”
Lack of consensus. Professional. And political.
From the Federation of associations of the higher bodies of the State Administration (Fedeca) it is argued that adjusting salaries matters, “but it is never the time”; that regulating it “is a double-edged sword” by increasing incompatibilities and not being able to complete the salary with, for example, a certain number of classes at the university. And because “what should be regulated are the revolving doors and conflicts of interest, if you hire in the private sector because of your competence or because of what that high official knows, the latter being what should be avoided.”
You look at Europe. But, again, for now nothing.
Why? “Because the high officials have enormous power: they control the springs of the General State Administration (after all, they are the ones who prepare the legislative drafts), they control the classic policy of the PSOE-PP by being inserted in these two big parties, and they control some big companies. The political, institutional and business power of this group is impressive” expresses the Pompeu Fabra professor.
