The Mairena del Alcor City Council, governed by Juan Manuel López Domínguez (PP), awarded more than two million euros to companies throughout 2023 under the “total absence of administrative procedure,” according to a report from the municipal intervention, which warns of irregularities in the economic, financial, budgetary and accounting management of the local administration of this Sevillian municipality of 24,000 inhabitants.
Specifically, the auditor points out that, during the fiscal year 2023, he has issued a total of 206 “reparation reports related to expense files.” Some of them invalidated invoices corresponding to supplies and services “due to the total absence of an administrative contracting and budgetary procedure”, considering that “they arise from completely null and void acts”, as appears in the document to which this newspaper has had access.
The objections are “warnings of illegality” issued by the body in charge of supervising the economic management of the City Council. When the auditor detects signs that the actions of public entities do not comply with the law, he issues a written objection (that is, an objection to irregularities or regulatory non-compliance), explaining the reasons why he considers that action or expense is inappropriate. Faced with these notices, the mayor can choose to comply with the objection and correct the irregularities, or he can reject it and continue with the planned expense, as has happened in the case of the Mairenero councilor.
SevillaelDiario.es has accessed 35 expense resolutions with objections that total around 1,637 bills for hardware, electricity or stationery, among other items, contracted by hand by the City Council and the Public Agency for Urban Services, Activities and Urban Planning ( APAL). All of them exceed two million euros. Despite being included in a resolution “unfavorably audited”, as appears on the invoice itself, the PP mayor validates the expense of each of them and orders their payment.
Consistory sources consulted by this newspaper acknowledge the existence of these objections, but decline to explain how the contracting of these supplies and services has been carried out. Nor do they clarify whether the indicated irregularities have been corrected.
A procedure that is “not common”
This newspaper has consulted other municipal auditors to find out the scope of this report and they point out that “it is not usual” for a City Council to receive hundreds of objections from the auditor in one year. The same sources assess that the amount awarded without an administrative procedure – at least two million euros – is very high for an administration of the size of Mairena del Alcor.
To those more than two million euros accounted for in 35 resolutions, we would have to add the invoices from other autonomous organizations (APRODI –Municipal Board of the Mairena del Alcor Mentally Disabled Labor Center– and OAL Alconchel –Alconchel Local Autonomous Organization manages public programs training and employment, Workshop School and Trade Houses –) in which the auditor has also identified many other resolutions of invoices with objections.
Along with the intervention warnings (body focused on financial oversight), some invoices from the public entities mentioned also have an unfavorable legal report issued by the secretariat (focused on the legal legality of the procedure). The secretary also finds irregularities in the management of various contracts, related to lack of transparency, regulatory non-compliance and possible practices contrary to current legislation.
Among them, the secretariat highlights in its reports a recurring practice on the part of the local administration: splitting contracts, that is, dividing contracts into smaller ones, although in all of them the object of the benefit is “identical or similar”, to thus awarding the service directly to a specific company, bypassing the public bidding process.
In the reports that this newspaper has been able to access, the general secretary of the Mairena del Alcor City Council emphasizes that “it has been reiterated on numerous occasions that, if awards are carried out through different minor contracts with identical or similar objectives for “If an amount greater than 15,000 would be artificially dividing the object of the contract and, therefore, it would be acting against the provisions of the Public Sector Contracts Law.”
Three contracts for Christmas lighting
The report emphasizes that “this situation would be aggravated if these awards are made to the same supplier, as is the case of supplies in the promotion and development area, where practically all of the supplies necessary for the execution of the Programs” are awarded to the same two companies systematically.
“In no case can the amounts of minor contracts with the same or similar object be awarded to the same company if these amounts exceed the threshold of minor contracting”, that is, more than 40,000 euros, in the case of works contracts, or 15,000, in the case of supply or service contracts. Minor contracts “may not have a duration of more than one year nor be subject to extension,” the secretariat recalls, considering contracts in which these circumstances contrary to the legislation occur as “unfavorable” until they are corrected.
An example of the irregular division indicated by the secretariat has to do with the contracting of Christmas lighting for the period 2022-2023. For this purpose, the Mairena del Alcor City Council with Juan Manuel López executed three contracts that, in the opinion of the secretary, “should be processed as a single administrative file because their purpose is identical or similar.” Furthermore, “the amount of the three contracts would far exceed the amount of the minor contract, so it should be processed through a reduced simplified open procedure” in accordance with current legislation.
The secretariat adds that “the amounts of the three contracts are identical and budgets are requested from the same three companies, with the proposed winner of the three files being the same businessman.” For this reason, it concludes that “this is an unjustified division of the object of the contract in order to avoid public bidding, which is not covered by the Public Sector Contracts Law.” Public bidding requires opening the contract to a competitive process in which several companies can submit offers, thus guaranteeing equal opportunities and better prices or conditions for the administration.
It cannot ensure legality in economic-financial management
In the report – dated July 2024 – in which the auditor reports on the objections issued in 2023, the local government is also criticized for the fact that the intervention body has been carrying out functions that “do not correspond to it”, such as carrying out certain management procedures “incompatible with its internal control function and its functional autonomy.”
The auditor attributes this to “the lack of means and structure in the City Council itself and in the dependent organizations.” And he identifies it as proof of “the ineffective structuring” of the Mairena del Alcor Town Council and its dependent organizations. For all these reasons, it states that “the current breakdown of entities dependent on the City Council does not ensure effectiveness, efficiency and legality in economic-financial, budgetary and accounting management.”
Finally, it reports that “inaccuracies remain in the financial statements” related to “the approval of the settlements of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 budgets and the 2021 and 2022 general accounts.” Faced with this, the auditor claims to be “working on the purification of the accounting records and accounting procedures to ensure that the financial statements reflect a true image of the economic-financial and patrimonial situation” of the City Council of Mairena del Alcor.
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