After several members made his conduct ugly, the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) Rafael Mozo has resigned this Wednesday to collect the salary of 151,000 euros gross per year, set by law for those who hold the position of president of the Court Supreme Court and the governing body of judges.
The remuneration that Mozo received until now was identical to that of his predecessor, magistrate Carlos Lesmes, who, however, also held the position of president of the Supreme Court (the current acting president of the TS is magistrate Francisco Marín Castán).
This circumstance had generated discomfort and confusion in a group of members of the governing body of the judges who asked the magistrate for explanations weeks ago in private, as EL MUNDO has learned.
The president, aware that the controversy was increasing, decided this Wednesday to renounce collecting the aforementioned allowance. In a statement, sent by the communication office of the CGPJ, Rafael Mozo maintains: "At all times I have acted in accordance with the law and in accordance with the criteria and information of the technical bodies of the General Council of the Judiciary, although to avoid any impairment to my honor and to the image of the General Council of the Judiciary, I renounce from this moment to receive any remuneration that exceeds what would correspond to me as a member of the governing body of judges".
According to legal sources reported to this newspaper, last February, at the end of the plenary session that was held in the organ, several members contacted Mozo to tell him that they knew that he was receiving the full salary of his predecessor Lesmes even though he does not occupy the office of president of the Supreme Court.
The aforementioned directors warned him that such an assignment did not correspond to him after having been appointed substitute president in October 2022 after the resignation of Carlos Lesmes. Likewise, the different sources consulted explain that these members entrusted Mozo to redirect the situation and regularize the money that he could have overcharged on the payroll. The president agreed that he would review the payments he was receiving. And so he did.
Days after that conversation, he raised a query to the manager of the governing body of judges. The answer came via email. On March 3, Mozo received an email from the head of management with the concept “remuneration”. In the aforementioned email a comparative table of the payments that the president had received as a member and as president "between the months of September 2022 and February 2023" was attached. The manager told Rafael Mozo the following: "I try to explain to you the content of the payrolls with the remuneration that corresponds to the president of the Council, which are those expressly established in the General State Budget Law."
Five days later, the substitute president sends an email to the manager where he asks: "Consequently, as you told me a few days ago, I am entitled to the remuneration as president of the Board?". The manager's response came two and a half hours later and was as follows: "This is Rafael, the only ones we can pay for."
Mozo defends that this remuneration was due to the plenary agreement of last October 13 where it was stipulated that "the substitute president will have the means attributed to that position." In addition, it specifies that the aforementioned attribution was supervised by the Intervention of the Council and emphasizes that the remuneration that corresponds to him in application of the agreement of the Plenary "are those established in the General State Budgets for the position of president of the Supreme Court and of the General Council of the Judiciary, which constitute an inseparable item, the only one provided for by law and the only one, therefore, that the CGPJ can pay".
However, there are members who call what happened a "scandal" considering that he is receiving a salary that includes two functions and one of them, that of the presidency of the Supreme Court, Mozo is not performing. They further state that "an agreement is not a valid legal title to generate economic rights."
In contrast, the president of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court, Francisco Marín Castán, has served as vice president of the Supreme Court since 2019 and president of the High Court since October 2022 without having received any additional compensation as he has assumed more responsibilities, both jurisdictional as protocols within the body. This comparative reparation with Rafael Mozo has generated a deep discomfort in the TS.
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