Database mistake causes state aid payment chaos in Catalonia

The chaos that has left tens of thousands of low-income families in Catalonia without their

420-euro state-aid checks this August has in part been caused by the use of an out-of-date database by the regional department of business and employment, EL PAÍS has learned from sources in the agencies managing the payments. The mistake meant many people's checks were sent to their old addresses.

The alarm was sounded by social workers who were surprised at being overwhelmed by cases of check recipients who had updated their addresses weeks or months before in the main database - which is run by the Catalan Institute of Assistance and Social Services, under the auspice of the regional social welfare department - but later discovered their payments had gone astray.

"The business and employment department has used an old version of its information system or another database it must have had as payer of the aid, but many checks were sent to the wrong addresses," explained a social worker in an important metropolitan area town.

Several town halls, such as those of Sabadell and Tarragona, also confirmed checks had been sent to the wrong houses.

The crisis surrounding the guaranteed minimum income (RMI) payments began at the start of August when the regional government, headed by Artur Mas of the rightist CiU Catalan nationalist bloc, changed the RMI payment system without warning. Claiming to be introducing a surprise control measure to combat fraud, the Generalitat decided to begin sending checks instead of making bank transfers to recipients.

The result has been a disaster that by last Friday meant one out of every four RMI recipients was still waiting for their check, as has been acknowledged by the Catalan government. The situation has obliged many town halls and charities such as Cáritas and the Red Cross to mobilize all available resources to forward money and food on to those affected.

The departments involved have failed to clear up the problem. Although the business and employment department, run by Francesc Xavier Mena, pays the RMI and sends the checks: "The data regarding

to whom and where to do it is provided to us by the department of social welfare," said a spokesman.

However, social welfare, which is run by Josep Lluís Cleries, denies this is the case. "The minimum income payment is the responsibility of the business and employment department and it was they who chose what data to use to send the checks," a spokesman said.

Mena and Cleries will both have to explain their actions in parliament on Friday in an extraordinary meeting forced on them by the Catalan opposition. The differences between the two were made manifest last week: while Cleries apologized for the problems, Mena accused thousands of Moroccans of fraudulently receiving RMI payments, earning him accusations of racism from opposition parties and social organizations.