There is still a lot of explaining to do

Of the five cases against he ex mayor of Bigastro, José Joaquín Moya , the one being dealt with at the moment is the most serious. Moya and Raul Medina Valerio, who succeeded him as mayor, appeared in court yesterday to explain why cheques and promissory notes worth 400,000 from the town’s accounts had been issued. For example, the prosecutor sought an explanation for 19 City Council cheques worth 64,000 Euros which had been paid to Moya.

In his defence, Moya claimed that the money which had been found in his bank account following his arrest had come from the sale of land which he owned. Of the cheques for sums up to 6,000 Euros, he said that these were legitimate expenses for entertaining. He added that because the cheques had been paid to him did not mean he had personally benefitted from them.

As the prosecutor reminded Moya, the problem is that there is no documentary evidence in the town hall accounting for some of the sums of money for example the 36,000 Euros of cheques and notes in his car at the time of his arrest which Moya says were for advertising expenses.

In Moya’s defence, Medina said that, if this is all simply about administrative errors then it was wrong to make a criminal case against Moya.

I think that most would agree that the inability to explain where such large sums of money have gone to is perhaps more than just the result of administrative errors.