The deputy mayor of Madrid and CS candidate, Begoña Villacís (left), and the national spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Patricia Guasp, at the event organized by the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) in memory of the victims of 11-M , last Saturday. VICTOR LERENA (EFE)
During the general assembly to re-found Ciudadanos —held on January 14 and 15—, the then Finance Secretary, Carlos Cuadrado, reported that the party's national coffers had 11 million euros to stay afloat despite the crisis and to the bleeding in the number of affiliates.
But the new executive has discovered that the formation had lost control over other accounts: those that correspond to the regional and municipal parliamentary groups throughout Spain, as the management has admitted to this newspaper.
A supervision that the new leadership is trying to recover in a hurry now, two weeks after the autonomous Chambers and local Corporations are dissolved due to the call for the May elections.
Cuadrado, historical of the party and in charge of CS's money, was authorized as a proxy to control all the bank accounts of the groups in the institutions in which Ciudadanos maintains representation.
A power that he shared with the spokesmen of each group.
In November, Cuadrado unilaterally withdrew his name from the accounts, as recognized by the new address.
And, with this movement, the national executive has since lost the supervision of thousands of euros.
On February 28, Cuadrado was fired as treasurer when the leadership changed after the refounding assembly and José Manuel Gil was appointed as the new Finance Secretary.
EL PAÍS has tried to contact Cuadrado to obtain his version, without success.
The new executive discovered the imbroglio of the signatures recently.
And she got to work to regain control without delay.
This week, the councilors of the party have begun to receive emails - to which this newspaper has accessed - in which they are asked to incorporate the manager of CS as the new proxy for the bank account.
They are also calling the charges personally to make the change now.
The task is not easy.
On the one hand, because numerous councilors have left Ciudadanos in recent months, unhappy with the refoundation process and they could refuse to grant that authorization.
A risk of which management is aware.
And, on the other hand, because there are members of Ciudadanos who are wary of where the amounts will go.
"You have to have a thousand eyes in case the management wants to use the money for the May election campaign," says a critic of the executive.
One of the regional parliamentary groups is opposed to renewing the authorization, according to those responsible.
The management categorically denies that these amounts are going to be used for the campaigns for the regional and municipal elections in May, something that is not allowed by law.
They do confirm the requirement to the charges to incorporate the new attorney in the accounts.
The aim, according to management sources, is to find out how the groups have spent and are spending the allocations they receive from the regional parliaments and town halls.
Other authorized sources from the executive add: “Agreements have been signed with us for services, advice, programmatic support, management support.
And there is a transfer of that money from the groups to the party for providing these services”.
Sources opposed to the leadership allege that, in this moment of crisis that the party is dragging, such services are hardly provided.
Several party sources maintain that the 11 million euros that Cuadrado computed as money in cash included the amounts corresponding to the institutional groups.
An extreme that the executive completely denies.
What they do recognize is that there are "many bills", "pending expenses" and "severance pay" pending payment.
But all apart from the money that corresponds to the groups, they assert.
Carlos Cuadrado, former CS treasurer, in a file image. Mariscal (EFE)
Meanwhile, the CS candidate for mayor of Madrid and current deputy mayor, Begoña Villacís, has started her own campaign this week, with the slogan
Madrid DC
According to several sources, Villacís' team had been angry at the delay in assigning of the money budgeted by the national leadership for the territories in the campaign.
"A first approximation of what corresponds to each autonomous community has been made," explain management sources.
“Now, each regional committee will have to make the distribution based on the weight of the municipality.
We are going to invest more in those places where there is a prospect of better results”, they add.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber