Espino states that he managed the Centers "with total respect for legality": "In no case were purchases simulated"

"I deeply regret that my work at the head of the Centers is part of this murky and repugnant scenario at this time. I understand that it is artificially and forced by circumstances that have nothing to do with my management at the head of the Centers." This is how Carlos Espino has stated in a statement, after the newspaper La Provincia reported that an expert report commissioned within the judicial case opened for the management of the Tourist Centers in his stage, between July 2007 and October 2009, indicates that in that period invoices were "inflated", paying at least 181,987.88 euros more to three companies. According to this newspaper, the three companies belong to the same owner.

Espino has sent a statement in which he defends himself against these accusations, assures that all his decisions were adopted with "total respect for legality" and trusts that the courts will rule in his favor "as soon as the instruction phase is completed." In it, he emphasizes that the expert report is an "economic assessment of the works carried out and the elements acquired in different remodeling in the Centers" and assures that "in no case" would he dare to "question the rigor" of this assessment.

However, he warns that he "reserves the right to contradict the result" of this expert opinion, through "the opportune request for complementary evidence and the testimonial evidence that would proceed to prove that such deviation is non-existent or, in any case, perfectly justifiable depending on the works carried out."

Espino also criticizes that this expert opinion was carried out "in recent months" on works and equipment purchases that occurred "in 2008 and early 2009." "This unacceptable delay in the preparation of the expert opinion, requested since 2010, cannot be attributed in any case to any attitude of obstruction on my part. From the examination of the actions it is deduced that I never challenged either the request for the expert opinion, nor the designation of experts," he defends.

The former socialist councilor considers that this delay harms him "enormously", since carrying out the expert opinion "after so much time has passed" generates "a certain level of defenselessness." "The more time passes, the greater the difficulty in proving the existence or not of all the material acquired and, even, the adaptation works necessary for the commissioning of the acquired equipment," he points out.

"In no case were purchases simulated"

Carlos Espino insists that "from the first moment, and in a way that admits no doubt, the report states that all the material acquired is in the Centers", although he admits that "with the exception of a dryer." "Taking into account that the already repeated report verifies the existence of more than two hundred elements, it is clear that in no case were purchases simulated," he emphasizes. "For the sake of completeness, and in the manner that my legal direction considers, I will request the practice of as many tests as are pertinent to prove that the aforementioned dryer also entered the Centers and to find out the subsequent destination of the same (replacement due to breakdown or transfer to another installation)," he points out.

Finally, the former councilor of the Cabildo and former head of the Tourist Centers emphasizes in this statement that corruption "in all its facets is an unbearable scourge", since "it harms public coffers, violates the equality of all before the decisions of the administration and, above all, breaks the essential trust of citizens with the public."

He also thanks "the calls of encouragement" received throughout this Wednesday after the content of this expert report became public and wants to make it clear that his decisions at the head of the Tourist Centers "may have been more or less timely, may be more or less criticizable, but they always responded to the interest of the Centers and were adopted with total respect for legality."