Spain The Court of Accounts threatens sanctions against Más País and Vox "for donations received"

The Court of Accounts threatens sanctions against groups with parliamentary representation such as Más País and Vox for donations received and warns of a financial situation of bankruptcy of different political parties and foundations, including Iñigo Errejón’s own party, Teruel Existen and the socialist foundation Pablo Iglesias and the Vox Dissent.

The Court of Auditors has approved the audit report on the annual accounts of the corresponding political parties for 2018 and 2019 and, in them, has detected irregularities “that could constitute punishable infractions,” he threatens. He first cites “the Más País formation”, led by Errejón, “for accepting donations from legal entities.” Also Més por Mallorca and the Catalan PDeCAT, “for accepting finalist donations.” Finally, he points out Vox for “unidentified donations.” It does not give figures on the scope of the infringement to be able to gauge whether it will be relevant or, as has happened in other cases in the past, insignificant.

Más País also highlights in another section of the report, that of “political parties with negative assets” at least in 2019, the last year audited. This financial situation is equivalent to technical bankruptcy. The six in this situation are the Errejón party, Teruel Exist, Citizens’ Forum, Democratic Convergence of Catalonia, En Marea and Initiative per Catalunya-Verds. These last three are also “in a bankruptcy situation prior to their dissolution.” In the foundations section, the Pablo Iglesias Foundation of the PSOE stands out, once again. Also the not yet dissolved Ideas Foundation of the same party and the Disenso Foundation, also linked to Vox. The asset imbalance in these three foundations is 2.2 million, 146,138 euros and 70,020, respectively.

The Court of Accounts criticizes that three parties “breached their duty to collaborate” by not providing required accounting information and points to Nueva Canarias, the Basque Nationalist Party and the Navarro People’s Union.

The organization chaired by Enriqueta Chicano has so far only released a summary of the report without making it public in its entirety. It does state that nine political parties “did not faithfully reflect their financial and asset situation,” but omits to give their names for now.

The global figures are dizzying. “The public financing received by political parties amounted to almost 555 million, 183 million in 2018 and 372 million euros in 2019, an increase that was due to the large number of electoral processes held in this last year.” the supervisory body highlights in a statement summarizing the report.

“The report establishes that these amounts represented 71% and 83% of the total resources obtained by the parties in the years analyzed. For this reason, the Court of Auditors recommends to the formations the convenience of balancing the balance between financing public and private to avoid excessive dependence on public income and, consequently, possible situations of insolvency,” he emphasizes.

Regarding bank debt, the parties’ bank debt exceeded 145 million in 2019, of which 76.44 million were mortgage-backed loans and 42 million were “electoral debts.” Microcredits amounted to 14.37 million.

Among the non-compliances, he adds that “in 2017 the obligation to integrate the activity of the local and regional headquarters of the parties into the consolidated annual accounts came into force. In the audit it was observed that some political formations had not yet completed the closing of 2019 this process of incorporation of all headquarters”. The PSOE, Bildu, Izquieda Unida, Partido Aragonés, BNG and PNV presented this deficiency, according to the document.

Regarding foundations linked to parties, “both in the case of private donations and public subsidies, the Report observes possible non-compliance with regulations and ineligible expenses.” And he adds: In this last case, the Court of Auditors will inform the organizations that granted the subsidies in order to request the corresponding reimbursement.”

Regarding foundations linked to parties, “both in the case of private donations and public subsidies, the Report observes possible non-compliance with regulations and ineligible expenses.” And he adds: In this last case, the Court of Auditors will inform the organizations that granted the subsidies in order to request the corresponding reimbursement.”