Pulling the ears on the municipalities of Cádiz, Marbella or Jaén for not being accountable to public auditors

A dozen Andalusian municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants are reluctant to render accounts before the body that audits public administrations in Andalusia: the Andalusian

.

There are two provincial capitals in that relationship:

governed by Adelante Andalucía, and

, with the PSOE in its mayor's office.

But in that list there are also other cities of enormous political weight such as Marbella (PP), El Ejido (PP), Linares (in the hands of the PSOE since July and previously governed by Ciudadanos), El Puerto de Santa María (PP), Mijas ( PSOE), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (PSOE), Torremolinos (PSOE), Utrera (PSOE) and Vélez-Málaga (PSOE).

In addition, only the provincial councils of Almería, Granada, Huelva and Jaén have rendered their accounts on time, according to the annual report published in July by the Andalusian Chamber of Accounts in which a portrait of the Andalusian local public sector is made. , with 2020 data.

The Chamber requests information each year from the 892 local entities that make up the group of local administrations, with 8 provincial councils, 785 town councils, 66 associations and 33 autonomous local entities.

Other 621 instrumental entities depend on all of them,

Well, more than half of all these organizations did not even report and only 194 did so within the time limits established by law.

Another 236 submitted the numbers late, but at least they did.

And there are 109 local entities that have not presented their accounts in at least five years, between 2016 and 2020.

The municipalities had to have delivered the documents between November 1, 2021 and May 15, 2022. And, aside from the 11 with more than 50,000 inhabitants who have not submitted their accounts, there are others of the same size that have done so after the deadline and they are: Benalmádena, Chiclana de la Frontera, Córdoba, Estepona, Fuengirola, Huelva, Jerez de la Frontera, La Línea de la Concepción, Málaga, Roquetas de Mar, San Fernando and Seville.

The provincial council of Cádiz had not rendered the accounts for 2020 as of May 15 and those of Córdoba, Málaga and Seville did so after the deadline.

The lack of diligence of local governments in their obligation to present their accounts to the regional body that audits them is an evil that is repeated every year and has even worsened in recent years, according to the auditors, being the provinces of Cádiz and Huelva those with the lowest rates of commitment to this demonstration of transparency and rigor in management.

And the slap on the wrist that the Chamber of Accounts gives in its periodic reports to the municipalities and their governors has already become a classic, to the point that this body has spent years demanding that Parliament provide it with a greater capacity to impose fines that prevent municipalities from escaping the control of the Chamber without this having consequences.

In its latest report, "the pertinent legislative modifications to have coercive capacity" are again demanded, as the public auditors of other autonomous communities already have.

And he cites the examples of

, the

and the

, which do have tools to act in the event of non-compliance with the obligation to render accounts or respond to requests for information made by the auditing body.

It is also demanded that the assistance and advice to the localities be strengthened, especially those with less than 5,000 inhabitants, by the provincial councils, so that they can catch up on the accounting both of the municipalities themselves and of its related entities.

And that the quality of the advice provided be audited in some way.

On many occasions, the entities allege a lack of means and personnel to meet the requirements of the auditors, therefore the problem is structural and not conjunctural, according to the audit report.

The Chamber of Accounts also proposes changes in the legislation to condition the receipt of subsidies, aid or transfers from other public administrations in favor of local entities, regardless of their nature, "to the effective rendering of the General Account".

"These measures should also refer to the surrender by the dependent entities that are part of the General Account of the local entity."

Budget extension

The Chamber of Accounts also warns of how local entities systematically resort to the extension of their budgets as a tool to avoid obligations.

And remember that this option should only be adopted in exceptional situations, "since it can interfere with local budget activity and execution, so it is recommended that local entities only use this mechanism in essential cases and not as a regular resource" .

Lastly, it urges the town councils and county councils to liquidate all those instrumental entities with deficits and without activity and to complete the processes of dissolution of the companies in liquidation, and thus avoid the existence of an administrative limbo of organizations that, on occasions, survive a legislature after another, entangling the administrative structure and hindering the work of inspection.

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