The Andalusian general intervention warned of six cases of impairment of public funds before the recent relay of its dome | Spain

The general intervention of the Andalusian Board alerted six cases of possible impairment of public funds for 22 million in different agencies between 2023 and 2024. The auditors sent six alerts to the Minister of Economy, Finance and European Funds, Carolina España, to ensure that the Andalusian Government (PP) immediately stop the loss of money due to accounting irregularities. The IDEA Agency, the Science Park of Granada, the Andalusian Employment Service, the APAE Education Agency, the Agricultural and Fisheries Agency Agapa and the Fernando de los Ríos Consortium starred in these cases with indications of “intent, guilt or serious negligence” by officials or labor personnel and detected by the auditors in their economic-financial controls.

The general intervention is an elite body composed of senior officials that controls and audits all economic and financial operations of the Board to ensure that they are adjusted to the law. Since the arrival at the beginning of the year of new general auditor, Miguel Ángel Figueroa, The Spain counselor has received two communications for article 110 of the General Law of Andalusian Public Treasury on impairment of funds – since 2022 replace the action reports -, according to a spokeswoman for the Ministry. The IDEA Agency, directed by Figueroa between 2022 and 2024, is the body that accumulates more alerts for supposedly illegal actions or omissions: the first in July 2022, the second in October 2023 and the last last October.

The first report on the loss of funds in IDEAsoned the lack of claim of 15 million by the Directorate of Idea to the companies that had received loans from the Board. The granted aids were reimbursable and idea could have claimed the funds, but did not. « Not only has it not been tried to recover the funds subject to the previous operations, but also certain companies have received more than one loan. That is, despite not returning the loans received, they have been beneficiaries of new loans, which have not reinstated either. With this, the criteria used by idea to grant them and their lack of zeal in terms of their recovery, and from the time of the time, He censored the auditor in his critical report. The audit failed the « total lack of diligence » of the public agency to recover the funds provided to companies such as High Technology Composites, which received six loans from the Andalusian Board in the 1990s.

The general intervention warned in January 2022 to the idea that he had to move record urgently to defend his assets. Two months later, the agency denounced before the Prosecutor’s Office of Seville the concession by its former responsible for 48 unpaid loans. Next, the Court of Instruction 20 of the Andalusian capital opened cause and charged 20 former leaders and idea technicians. However, some aids are prescribed and certain criminal actions have already been filed. In the administrative field, the accounting responsibility denounced by the controller has prescribed, according to sources in the case.

The second alert of the General Intervention on the IDEA Agency warned of a impairment of 2.2 million detected in October 2023 due to an old agreement signed with the Fernando de los Ríos Consortium between 2011 and 2013. and the last alarm was sent last October for a impairment of 7.5 million in the guarantees granted by idea in 2013, which added to total 71 million. Of these, more than 25 million were considered « unrecoverable », so the auditor alerted possible damage to the treasury. Until 2020 Idea said that those 7.5 million stolen from the Public Treasury were recoverable, but during the pandemic the agency accepted that it was already lost money without the possibility of reversion, with the consequent reproach of the auditor to idea. After a chaotic accounting, the agency tries to recover 64 million of the guarantees in justice. « 78% of the amount of the guarantees granted were failed, » the auditor concluded in his report.

Despite the accounting reprimand of the auditors, an idea now tries to erase their debt of 115 million from a stroke through the presentation of its 2020 accounts, according to the Ministry of Finance.

In parallel, the General Intervention sent to the Minister Spain an alert in April 2024 for a impairment of 170,000 euros in the Agricultural and Fisheries Management Agency of Andalusia (Agapa), between 2019 and 2021. The money claimed by the controller comes from eight debts from other organizations – Bancos, Companies and the Pablo de Olavide University, among others – with the agency prescribed in 2022. Therefore, the auditor appoints the last five general directors – including the current one, José Carlos Álvarez – as assumptions responsible for the loss in the treasury by declaring the debts prescribed.

The auditor who analyzed the accounts of the Andalusian Public Agency of Education (APAE) in 2021 detected “undue payments” for 34,127 euros to the director of the legal advice of said agency, so he issued an alert report in 2023. On the Granada Sciences Park, the auditor identified a possible impairment of 70,474 euros with accounting responsibility paid to the former director manager in functions and payments of the former director of the Area of ​​Economy and Human Resources.

On the Andalusian Employment Service (SAE), the general intervention identified at the end of 2023 a impairment of 27,373 euros due to accounting irregularities in quantities received by five employees of the Mijas consortium. Finally, the Fernando de los Ríos consortium paid 4,214 euros irregularly to its general director between 2019 and 2020, as reported by the general intervention last December.

The counselor justifies the general auditor

After the publication last Wednesday that The general auditor, Miguel Ángel Figueroa, had retained proposals for action reports in a drawer for four monthsthe Andalusza counselor of Economics, Finance and European Funds, Carolina España, justified the delay of the main proposal, which affects the Agency Idea: “Here there is nothing paralyz proposal) ».

Sources of general intervention refute the explanation of the counselor and clarify that the report of the Legal Cabinet to determine who replaces Figueroa in case of conflict of interest is “completely unnecessary”, since in these cases the corresponding division directors have always signed: “There are clear and recent precedents, such as the former general auditors Vicente Fernández and María Antonia González, who abstained on numerous occasions and always signed the division directors that played. ” Given the conflict of interest of Figueroa for having directed an idea between 2022 and 2024, the pattern marks that must delegate the decision in its director of the Financial Control Division and Continuous Supervision I, Alicia Castro. The Spain counselor says that legal services have been studying the issue since February.