The Generalitat was forced to blow up the Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) a year ago after yet another scandal in the guardianship of minors and millions of irregularities in management. The case of a 12-year-old girl under the care of the Generalitat who was raped by a pedophile network for over a year was combined with the devastating report from the Audit Office revealing the fraudulent use of public money.
For all these reasons, a parliamentary investigation committee was created, which concluded a couple of weeks ago with a disappointing result that confirms the little usefulness of this type of committee. The Parliament confirmed the absolute mess of the DGAIA, but no one was allowed to take any technical or political responsibility. Colloquially speaking, they threw a shovel of dirt over the matter and let it go.
This regrettable political ending is explained because the main parties have governed this public service at some point. And, of course, among firefighters, you don’t step on each other’s hose. Thus, the announced measures were accepted without solving one of the main problems of this issue. I refer to who decides the removal of custody of a minor.
Politics has wanted to bury a terrible management that the justice system will continue to investigate
Despite requests from the Ombudswoman or the Barcelona Bar Association that this drastic decision be made by a judge, the Generalitat maintains the removal of custody in the hands of administrators. And suspicion remains there. There is a big setup around the guardianship of minors that feeds many people. This system is very lucrative because those who manage the minors’ centers receive between 4,000 and 6,000 euros per place. But if custody falls into the hands of a judge, the eagerness to fill places ceases to be a priority and the interest of the minor and their family prevails.
It is true that committees for the removal of guardianships have been created and that now, finally, the affected families are heard. But the last word still belongs to a Generalitat official and not a judge, with the serious problems this causes. The latest known case serves as an example. It concerns the recent conviction of the DGAIA for the rape of an eight-year-old minor it had under guardianship three years ago. The Generalitat refused twice to have the child taken to court to be examined for the assaults he suffered, which were detected by the monitors of the center where he was held. Finally, it was a judge who, after the complaint by the minor’s parents, ordered the child to be returned to his parents because the removal of custody ordered by a Generalitat official had been disproportionate.
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What was hidden behind that disproportionate removal? Why did they not want to take the raped child to court? Perhaps to avoid losing the thousands of euros in monthly allocation? Even the Ombudsman has warned that it cannot be allowed for minors to be raped in public foster care centers.
With the political route buried without anyone taking responsibility, the investigation by the Anti-Fraud Office remains open to determine if there is liability in the improper payments of more than 160 million euros in the mentioned conglomerate of child care, among other irregularities. The latest news we publish today is that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is opening an investigation to go further than where politics has not wanted to go.
Let us hope this judicial route has more progress and forces deeper transformations than the mere change of name of the general directorate and the makeup in custody removal procedures. The new minister in charge, Raúl Moreno, can take that step. Otherwise, he will be complicit in this whole situation, which he knows perfectly well because he has been involved in management for the last two years.
