Former Benalmadena mayor charged with misuse of funds

THE former mayor of Benalmadena, Paloma Garcia Galvez, has been charged with misuse of public funds.
The Public Prosecution bases this on a monthly payment of €600 made to local councillor Francisco Salido, the managing director of Benalmadena Marina.
Just days after being given the position, for which the prosecution believes he was not qualified, he decided he should be paid €600 extra, despite already getting €44,500 per year as councillor.
However, the payment was first agreed in July 2011, when socialist Javier Carnero was mayor. The socialist party claims to know nothing about it, and it was later approved when Garcia Galvez, from the conservative Partido Popular (PP), became mayor in 2012, following a vote of no confidence against Carnero.
Salido, despite having made a pact with socialists PSOE and left-wing Izquierda Unida, joined the PP to carry out the vote of no confidence.
He was paid in arrears once Garcia became mayor, the public prosecution claims, in order to make the payments he had been receiving appear to be legal.