Barcelona region number two sacked over missing funds

A Catalan politician was removed from his post at the provincial authority of Barcelona Friday on suspicion that he may have channeled over 900,000 euros of public money to his private company over the course of nearly a decade.

Josep Maria Matas, coordinator of the Diputación de Barcelona, is being investigated for embezzlement after EL PAÍS broke the story last week.

Between 2003 and 2011 his firm, Parés i Solé SL, accumulated over 920,000 euros, mostly from a single client, the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM), of which he was secretary general. The company has no employees and no office, and investigators believe it overcharged grossly for work such as press releases, advertising management and market studies.

Matas’ superior at the Barcelona provincial authority, Salvador Esteve, let him go on Friday morning after initially denying that he would do so. Both men also worked together at ACM, a public agency that lives on local and regional subsidies.

Matas is also president of the party Convergència Democràtica de Cataluña (CDC) for the Barcelona county of Osona. CDC and Uniò Democrática de Catalunya together form a coalition known as CiU that has ruled Catalonia for most of its democratic history. Regional premier Artur Mas, of CiU, declined to comment on the move, but described it as a “resignation” rather than a dismissal.