Ombudswoman proposes that squandering public funds be made a crime

María Luisa Cava de Llano

SPAIN The Spanish Ombudsman is a woman. María Luisa Cava de Llano is the Defensora del Pueblo en funciones (i.e. caretaker until next government's appointment). Before Congress was dissolved (also before elections on November 20 - hadn't you heard?) she told members that she had officially proposed to the Ministry of Justice that it should scrutinise "in all rigour and seriousness" the possibility of including 'public wastefulness' in the Penal Code, thus making it a crime. This, she said, "quite rightly deeply scandalizes the citizenry." She went on to tell the members present that she would not look at anyone in particular because "whoever is without sin, let him (or her?) throw the first stone.">>>

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"This is everyone's money obtained through the State via taxes imposed on the income or purchases of millions of people. Mountains of debt have to paid by future generations.

"Bills and more bills, counted in hundreds, thousands, are generated happily, as though the money earned with a lot of effort by workers or business people were never ending. Immeasurable expenditure that generally does not seek personal gain but certainly the political kind."

These and other reasons are what lead the Defensora to ask if present legislation is adequate to express the "public reproach" this kind of conduct merits. They are "one of the determining causes of the grave crisis we are suffering." In her opinion, serious thought is needed on the subject because public wastefulness is not proportionately reflected in Spain's legal system. She went on to detail legislation on the subject (the vast majority of Congress men and women are lawyers, we're not).

Another matter in the Defensora's report to Congress included "the inordinate delays in the legal system", where "budget cuts that are bound to prevent establishing the reforms needed and complicate the (legal) system even further."

After the report was read, several members of Congress expressed their astonishment at the hard words spoken by Cava de Llano. Most were disapproving of her tone. She was unapologetic on the following morning's radio and TV programmes.

(Prospero note: Go for it, lady!!)