The Court of Accounts has prepared a report in which it raises the need for greater control of foundations linked to political parties.
In the report, he denounces that more than half of the foundations audited in 2018 and 2019 -the last years analyzed- did not report their finances within the legally stipulated period or simply did not provide any data.
"Of the 51 entities audited in 2018 -explains the report-, 23 submitted the annual accounts on time (before June 30 of the year following the one to which they refer), 22 were received after said period and 6 entities have not submitted their accounts ”, picks up the text.
Therefore, compared to the 23 that complied with their legal obligations, another 28, a majority, did not.
In 2019, 16 entities rendered accounts on time,
26 after the deadline and 9 did not submit their annual accounts.
Therefore, 35 breaches and 16 regular actions were registered.
The president of the Court of Accounts, Enriqueta Chicano, appears on Tuesday before the Mixed Commission in charge of this institution in Congress to present her report, which concludes that "public financing represents 72% of the resources (of the parties) and the private financing 28%”.
In the court's opinion, this situation is unbalanced and can jeopardize the economic viability of various organizations -which it does not specify-, by making them excessively dependent on their electoral contribution.
Sources from the Court of Accounts itself explain that in this appearance they have chosen to offer general data, without pointing out specific parties, in order not to interfere in the campaign for the municipal and regional elections on May 28, which in the supervisory body It is already considered in full development,
Using data from 2017, the report underlines "the advisability of balancing" the weight that public and private sources must represent "in total financing in order to avoid excessive dependence on income from public sources."
And this because such income "may be subject to significant variations depending on the electoral results and become the risk of incurring insolvency situations."
The report also details, with data from 2017, that "public financing consisted of ordinary operating grants amounting to 170.67 million euros".
This figure includes 2.71 million euros to cover security costs and 5.72 million euros in electoral subsidies.
The private resources accounted for represented a total of 67.73 million euros, which include contributions from public officials, membership fees and contributions, and donations, among others.
Regarding compliance with the obligations to control the activity of foundations and associations linked to political parties, the report highlights that in 2018 and 2019 only about a third of the audited entities have submitted the audit report.
In 2018, 18 of 51 entities (35%) presented the accounts and the following year, 16 of the 51 (31%).
On the other hand, according to the information presented by the Ministry of the Interior, as of December 31, 2019, "only 18 of the foundations and 3 of the entities linked or dependent on the audited political parties, had registered in the specific section of the Registry of Political Parties”.
The report recommends that the Interior "continue updating the Registry of Political Parties" in order to have a list of the political parties obliged to present their accounts to the Court.
The supervisory body had already alerted the ministry led by Fernando Grande-Markaska that a series of parties had not spent all the subsidies they received to meet security expenses, so they had to return the unused amounts.
The list of organizations that were in this situation included Podemos (229,861.84 euros), Izquierda Unida (32,495.97 euros), Barcelona en Comú (24,726.51 euros), Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (12,615.36 euros), Compromís (14,347.04 euros), Anova (12,969.61 euros), Nueva Canarias (6,848.56 euros), Aragonese Party (8,757.18 euros), Unión del Pueblo Navarro (3,807.74 euros), Forum (3,046.10 euros) and EH Bildu (45.71 euros).
Some of these parties, such as Podemos, have already proceeded to the return in 2021 via entry to the Public Treasury.