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Two former senior officials of Spain's ruling People's Party denied on Tuesday any wrong-doing in their testimony to a court concerning the accusations levelled against them in the ongoing corruption scandal.
Former PP Treasurer Luis Barcenas has accused Francisco Alvarez Cascos and Javier Arenas, former general secretaries of the ruling party along with other high-ranking PP members including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of receiving illegal cash payments.
Barcenas is currently in preventive custody after he was found to have 46 million euros in Swiss Bank accounts, presumably as a result of illegal payments from the proceeds of donations to the party from many Spanish companies.
According to judicial sources the pair both flatly denied they had been paid illegal payments, as stated by Barcenas, adding that all of the payments they have received from their party were declared to the Spanish Treasury and subsequently taxed.
However, the same sources say that the pair both admitted there was a complete lack of control when it came to donations to PP funds.
Spanish television network RTVE reported that both Alvarez Cascos and Arenas confirmed that no mechanism had been put into place to ensure that their party fulfilled the obligations of the Law of Financing Political Parties, which was approved in 1985, or Spain's General Electoral Regime.
The pair admitted that they have never asked whether or such controls existed during their respective spells as the party's general secretary.
However, Arenas and Alvarez Cascos' declarations were contradicted by Cristobal Paez, who succeeded Barcenas as PP party Treasurer. He admitted receiving illegal payments in the neighborhood of 12,000 euros, saying the payments were made in 500 euro notes and not declared to tax authorities.
