By Jason Moore
HIGH office demands the highest standards. The resignation of tourism promotion chief Carlos Alia over the Russian strip club affair can't be brushed under the carpet. He has left his job but many questions are still unanswered. He claims that allegedly it was a mistake to try and put his night out in Russia on his Balearic government expense account. But as a leading local official and key Balearic government representative, just what the hell was he doing in a Russian strip club late at night on a Balearic government promotion trip? The idea that he is free to do anything he wants in his own free time is not an excuse. If he is in Russia on a Balearic mission to promote tourism then all his energies should be going into this task. If he had paid for the holiday himself, was on leave from his job, then that is a different matter, he is free to do what he likes, as long as he pays for it himself. The Balearic parliament should create a commission to investigate the now infamous trip to Russia and check and re-check all expense claims. This is a very serious state of affairs. We are dealing with public money and seedy strip clubs. Not only has the good name of the Balearic government been tarnished, your instant reaction is that if they've done it once they must have done it before. This claim may be completely unfounded but high office and politics are based on trust. This trust has been broken. This parliamentary committee must investigate the seven friends who accompanied Alia and they should be named and shamed. Alia has said that he didn't want to reveal their names for personal reasons. This makes it even worse. Until this affair is properly investigated then there will always be a cloud hanging over all Balearic government promotional trips and that is a great pity.
AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE