The Government of the Canary Islands is considering the possibility of its General Directorate of Childhood appearing as a private prosecution in the proceedings opened following the complaint filed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office against the NGO Fundación Respuesta Social Siglo XXI for alleged embezzlement of public funds intended for the care of migrant children. The case is investigating the company that managed the children's centers of La Santa and Yaiza for three years.
This will be agreed, if the legal services of the Canarian Executive deem it appropriate, "in case doubts persist about the whereabouts of the public money given to the entity Siglo XXI", according to sources from the Ministry of Social Rights informed EFE this Thursday.
This investigation, carried out by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of the province of Las Palmas, Javier Ródenas, has detected indications that this NGO, one of those contracted by the Canarian Government to care for unaccompanied immigrant children arriving by boat to the islands, embezzled public money for the benefit of four of its directors, whose management is now being examined by the Court of Instruction number 7 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as published in recent days by the newspaper "Canarias 7".
In the actions of these four people, the Prosecutor's Office sees indications of alleged crimes of falsification of commercial documents, disloyal administration and embezzlement of public funds and criticizes the Ministry of Social Rights of the autonomous community for its "lack of monitoring and control" of the contracts it awarded to that foundation through emergency procedures between the years 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Anti-Corruption explains in its complaint that it has examined the bank movements of three immigrant children's reception centers in Gran Canaria and two in Lanzarote, as well as the accounts of their directors, and has detected several irregularities.
Among them, it has discovered indications that significant amounts of public money have been diverted for "private purposes".
The Fundación Respuesta Social Siglo XXI received 95 euros per day for each child arriving by boat that it hosted in its centers, so it is estimated that it managed 12.50 million euros in four years only in the centers of Gran Canaria.
The Prosecutor's Office has also detected, according to the newspaper, that when the banks raised objections to the movements they made in their accounts, the investigated began to justify certain expenses with invoices unrelated to the activity of the centers and the children, such as medical treatments and meals in restaurants.
In the complaint, the Public Prosecutor's Office argues that "there are indications of a lack of monitoring and control in the contracts processed in emergency situations", which are "evident in the absence of measures and consequences of penalties when their breach by the foundation becomes apparent".
The centers subject to this investigation are those of Portobello, in Puerto Rico (Gran Canaria); Guiniguada and Alcorán, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; and Yaiza and La Santa, in Lanzarote.
Asked by EFE about these accusations, the General Directorate of Childhood and Family of the Canarian Executive in office has assured that it "has fully collaborated with the Prosecutor's Office and will continue to do so, providing all the documentation requested, as has been done since the investigation was known".
This department guarantees "that all necessary controls and inspections were carried out by the technicians, both from the Inspection service and from the General Directorate itself, to verify that the service was provided correctly and no irregularities were ever found".
"The exceptional measure of emergency contracts is the only formula that could be articulated for the care of unaccompanied children who arrived in the archipelago during that period. The Canary Islands only had 500 places for the reception and guardianship of these children and during the period of greatest arrival activity, the figure of 3,000 children under the responsibility of the Executive was reached", the sources consulted by EFE have stressed.
In the opinion of Childhood and Family, "it is the entity Siglo XXI that must respond to the serious accusations that weigh on it".
And that is what this NGO has done in a statement in which it has stressed that it "has been an active and collaborating/cooperating party in the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor's Office, proceedings initiated on January 24, 2022.
Siglo XXI assures that it has responded to the requirements and official letters sent and has provided, in January of this year, "justification and documentary support for each and every one of the expenses that have been paid with the transfers that were made to the directors of the children's centers", documents digitized in 24,709 pages.
The entity also states that the directors of these centers have not been called by the Prosecutor's Office and says that the Public Prosecutor's Office has concluded "that there is no documentary support to justify that the amount of 41,760.90 euros - and not 12.5 million - has been allocated to the service", that is, to cover the cash expenses of the five children's centers investigated between 2019 and 2022.
Fundación Respuesta Social Siglo XXI, whose staff in the Canary Islands amounts to 134 people, concludes that "the facts object of the complaint are not proven" as demonstrated, in its opinion, that the Prosecutor's Office has asked the Court to carry out "essential steps to conclude the investigation phase", so it asks for "maximum respect for the judicial procedure in progress and for the presumption of innocence of the people affected" by these actions.
