First scene. It is April 2019 and Koldo García It meets with José Luis Ábalos at the headquarters of the Ministry of Development. Both start talking about women as if they were chromos. “You like more Ariatna,” says Koldo, who knows his boss’s tastes. “I don’t know, the Carlota is enroll that you shit,” replies Ábalos. And, Eureka! Koldo gives with the magical solution: “Well, the one you want. Or Ariatna and Carlota, and take for ass.”
Second scene, February of the following year. Irene Montero She is still Minister of Equality and turns 32. His team in the Ministry, mainly formed by women, decides to prepare a surprise to “the boss” and light some candles on a cake and sing the happy birthday. “I did not expect to turn 32 in the Ministry. But I expected to turn 32,” says Montero, and they all laugh obediently. The video of the moment ends up running like gunpowder through social networks for its frivolity.
What do Koldo and Irene Montero’s trust team have in common? At first glance, anyone would say that they are opposite faces of reality. However, they share something substantial. At the moment in which both episodes are produced, all of them They are government advisors. They are what is called the eventual personnel of the ministries, trusted people who are placed by finger by the minister on duty and who receive a public salary, but who barely pay accounts for their work.
The government currently gives work to no less than 948 advisors through its 22 ministriesaccording to the statistical bulletin of personnel at the service of public administrations, updated this summer with data last January. This is the highest figure so far, with Pedro Sánchez, beating the record year after year, surpassing the threshold that he had elevated the previous year.
On the economic level, the government spent 75.4 million euros In paying the salaries of the eventual personnel in 2024, the last full year, according to the execution of the expenses of the State that monitors the Ministry of Finance. This means, on average, an expense of 79,500 euros per year per advisor
However, despite its growth in number and its high salary, the government is increasingly opaque when informing about these people, it is not known who they are, what training they have, why they have been named or what their functions are. They move in a translucent limbo that allows characters like Koldo García dispatched on prostitutes with their boss while charging public money.
In addition, Europe is warning Spain that this situation is a dangerous culture broth for corruption and is shaving not doing anything about it. On August 1, the group of states against corruption (Greco) of the Council of Europe published a report in which he assured that the Government had not fulfilled any of the 19 recommendations made to Spain in 2019 to prevent corruption.
One of those recommendations was precisely “reinforcing the regime applicable to the advisors, making them subject to the same transparency and integrity requirements that apply to high positions.” That is, you know who they are, what are your work and your curriculum. But also their statements of goods when appointed and ceased, to compare the evolution of their assets, and monitor rotating doors and conflicts of interest. According to the report, Spain is completely breaking this recommendation.
By ministries
According to the statistical bulletin, which is updated every six months, it is the own Pedro Sánchez who takes the prize to the greatest number of advisors. The ministry that currently has is the presidency, with 477 people as eventual staff. Although the advisors of Félix Bolañosmost are from the presidency of the government.
The following ministry with more advisors is that of territorial policy, with 153. This is not because Ángel Víctor Torres is plagued by trusted people, but because here the advisors of the Government Delegations are also included. In third place they tie, with 22 advisors each, the ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Ecological transition.
When analyzing the data, there is a striking event and that is that the largest number of advisors does not correspond to the importance of the ministry on duty. For example, the Ministry of Social Rights of Pablo Bustinduy It has 17 advisors and the youth of SIRA REGO has 15; While interior, led by Fernando Grande-Marlaskahas 13 and defense, of Margarita Roblesonly 10.
With these 948 advisors in total, the Government of Pedro Sánchez is at the highest point ever registered in Spain. In January 2018, when Mariano Rajoy He was still president, the Executive had 599 advisors, 349 less than now.
One of the arguments that Moncloa usually gives to justify that there are so many advisors is that there are many more ministries now than before. This, however, is fallacious. In January 2019, before the coalition with United We José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2010, with 648.
It is true that as of 2019, with the creation of the coalition government, the advisors shoot and in January 2021 there are already 764. But since then until now the figure has grown in 184 people and the number of ministries has remained unchanged, there were then the same 22 as now.
Hidden names
But beyond the figure, the other big problem is that it is not really known who these people are. Their names are not public on any website of the State and if a citizen makes a request for information to the transparency portal, The ministries do not answer or answer without really providing the information requested.
In that sense, the Civio Foundation has been asking for the list of advisers who were part of the Government between the 2020s and 2023. To date, they only have the complete information of the Ministries of Agriculture, Equality, Transport and Housing. Only four of 22. The situation has also aggravated. Because when the PSOE ruled with Unidas Podemos, since the beginning of 2020, most of the ministries did respond to information requests, although there were some like the presidency that they have never responded, but in recent years transparency is getting less and less.
One of the reasons for the Government to deliberately avoid the names can be the fact that dynamics are discovered from which the government is not proud. For example, Alberto Garzón He hired his sister -in -law as an advisor. Miquel Iceta He hired his friend Pere Navarro, who had been leader of the PSC just like him. There are also many cases of people who come from the private company and who, when they stop being advisors, return to positions related to the ministry with which they had worked or directly are promoted. This is a rotating door of manual.