Jessica R admits to Supreme Court she was paid by state firms without working

Jessica admits to Supreme Court she drew pay from two state firms without working

Jessica R acknowledged before the Spanish Supreme Court that she never actually worked for the two public companies that hired her and paid her a salary. First Ineco, then Tragsatec, both dependent on the Ministry of Transport and SEPI (the state holding company). Her testimony as a witness lasted about 45 minutes, during which she indicated that Joseba, Koldo García’s brother, managed her hiring. She added that she did not know they were public companies and that they never called her.

The account is not entirely new. Koldo had already admitted to the judge that he asked his brother, who had connections in both companies, for a "favor" to arrange her hiring. He defended that she was "qualified" and chosen as a person of "trust" to handle "Joseba's affairs." The magistrate expressed surprise: he did not understand why a trusted person was needed for administrative tasks.

The Torre de Madrid apartment and the 82,298 euros

The statement also addressed housing. Jessica R lived for two years as a tenant in an apartment in the Torre de Madrid building, Plaza de España, with a monthly rent of 2,700 euros. The Civil Guard’s Central Operational Unit noted in one of its reports that the scheme covered the rent and paid up to 82,298 euros. She confirmed she moved there thanks to Koldo’s intervention and that it was not a shared flat, but stated she cannot identify the specific person who made the payments.

Regarding her romantic relationship with former minister José Luis Ábalos, she indicated she realized after a year that he would not divorce. The appearance lasted around 45 minutes and, according to sources, she became emotional during her testimony: despite entering through the main door of the Supreme Court shortly before ten, the magistrate authorized her to leave through a different exit.

Hired without showing up: what the papers say

The scheme described by sources present is simple to state and hard to digest: two contracts at two public companies, a paycheck collected, and a chair no one occupies. Thousands of people work at Ineco and Tragsatec who entered by meeting requirements and passing tests. That is the collateral damage pointed out by those familiar with the staffs: now, they say, any employee of these companies carries the suspicion of having entered through the back door. The complete calculation of what the network cost, item by item, remains to be broken down.

The case remains open and indictments have been expanding. The judge in the Koldo case indicted Isabel Pardo de Vera for Jessica’s hiring. And in the trail of public contracts, more names and dependent companies appear: Logirail, a Renfe subsidiary, has also come up in conversation. None of this is closed.

Public salaries without work: the burden on those who do comply

The issue touches an old nerve: the difference between the salary earned by working and the one earned by being present. The most uncomfortable comparison circulating is that of Tragsa’s forest firefighters, with 16 years of seniority, who earn the same amount paid to Jessica without setting foot in the company. The figure needs no comment.

Some argue the problem is not an isolated case but a method: inflated staffs due to favors, interviews requiring Aramaic, aerospace engineering, and playing the violin, in a market where exceeding 2,000 euros net has become almost a antiestéticat. Opposing this is the argument that generalizing from a scandal punishes those who did pass the test. Both things can be true at once.

"In another country, everyone would resign"

The phrase sums up the anger: in another country, even the prompter would resign. Here, so far, no one is resigning. The Executive has not moved, and the case pogre on its own in the Supreme Court. The lingering question is not legal but political: how long can a government withstand this drip without losing a seat?

The unsettling fact is not the salary. It is that no one missed the worker during all that time.