THE SIGNATURE THAT RELEASED €1,453,500

One month and five days after the company caught up with its name, the resolution everyone was waiting for arrived.

On 29 October 2012, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the Deputy Minister for Industry and Energy of the Basque Government signed the resolution granting file GZI-0036-2012 (DOC-0137): admitted investment, 4,845,000 euros; repayable advance, 1,453,500 euros. Money from the GAUZATU programme, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

It is worth reconstructing what the signatory had —or should have had— before them. An application filed in May by a company that did not exist until September. A requirement from the technicians themselves, from June, warning of the lack of powers of representation, with no remedy on record. And a share sale to the man who contributed the asset, executed one day after the money was requested. All of it was in the file, noted by the administration itself, when the resolution was signed.

The grant is no minor act within this story: it is the moment when public money was committed on a file flawed from the outset — and the moment that defines the responsibilities. Because the programme rules did not configure the administration as a mailbox: they obliged it to verify. If it verified and granted, there is a problem. If it granted without verifying, there is another. There is no third option.