Jesús Gual, director general of European Funds and the Public Sector, resigned from his teaching post at a dissident academy, three and a half months after taking office and following a report from the Generalitat Conflict and Interest Control Office. He is addicted to Transparency, which warned of a “mismatch” between the performance of his duties at the Ministry of Finance and his “teaching activity”. The body had previously asked him to “correct and clarify the lack of consistency” between the activity statements submitted.
On November 27, Transparency warned of Gual’s “incompatibility” in “using the position of general manager because the teaching activity he carried out was not included.” Treasury sources explain that Gual “voluntarily” resigned from his teaching position at that time. They note that he did this “effective November 24”, that is, three days ago, but 112 days after he was appointed on August 4, following Transparency’s warning and changes to his statements.
Once appointed, senior officials must submit two statements of activity: the job description – which they will seek to align with the position – and the antecedents. In this sense, Gual presented the first one on October 3, in which he did not refer to his teaching activity, and the second one, in which he stated that he was preparing for the opposition “with a start date of 09/02/2023″. Transparency declared compliance on October 18, as the end date is 03/03/2023.” 10/2023″.
A week later, on the 26th, Gual submitted a new declaration of activity that included teaching work since 2013 in preparation for the opposition and “without an end date, meaning that he is currently continuing to pursue this job”. The transparency report adds: “In parallel, on the same day, the chief executive submitted a statement of pre-tenure activities, which did not include the teaching activity described.”
Therefore, on November 6, the Conflict and Interest Control Office requested him to “correct and clarify any inconsistencies that exist between the two statements of activity.” At the same time, he informed the director general that this paid teaching activity was “incompatible with serving in the Generalitat.”
Faced with this obligation, Gual, on November 16, a week before resigning from teaching activity, submitted a letter to the appointee of the Conflict and Interest Control Office, making him “aware that teaching and training activity had already been carried out.” It was recognized as a senior position and continues to be used to this day, thus requiring the issuance of a relevant clear compliance or non-compliance decision.
Thereupon, Transparency declared the inappropriateness of the position and gave it two months “to correct the reasons that gave rise to the incompatibility”. “All this without prejudice to the fact that, in the event of regulatory changes, a new assessment may be required even before the expiration of the aforementioned two-month period,” he adds. This last assumption may arise during the approval of the legal reform in the Accompaniment Act.