-Forcing such an unmotivated and unrigorous, incomplete and rushed work carries a reputational risk for the Chamber of Accounts that I cannot accept.
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-The tone borders on insult.
The first sentence corresponds to Verónica López, councilor of the Chamber of Accounts proposed by Más Madrid. The second, to Ana Cossío, vice president of the oversight body proposed by the PP. Their disagreement, which reveals the internal division in the entity that must examine the legality of the expenses of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s government (PP), is aired publicly, as it is reflected in that examines the tourism strategy of the Community of Madrid 2023-2026. This unusual situation is the culmination of the tension in a Chamber recently marked by several controversies.
The first is generated by the appointment of Joaquín Leguina, former socialist leader of Madrid, who will soon turn 85, as president. The politician, appointed by Díaz Ayuso, has been involved in surprising episodes, such as rectifying a report that included the proposal that severely mentally ill patients pay to be treated in the public system, revealed by EL PAÍS. He has also gone to the Assembly to announce live that he would not explain a ruling of the entity he presides over: “My experience in these agreements is zero.” And he has celebrated that the Chamber hired his partner as temporary staff, who was already working for the regional administration.
The second controversy centers on filling a vacancy dependent on the PP, after the death this December of vice president Carlos Salgado. The conservatives have requested to extend the deadline until May to select their candidate.
And the third now erupts with the report on tourism, a demonstration of the potential danger posed by partisan dynamics that pit government and opposition in the Madrid Assembly being transferred to the Chamber.
It all starts when it is decided to audit compliance with legality in the management of public funds assigned to the Strategic Tourism Plan 2023-2026. The report states that Madrid benefits from the highest growth in total tourist spending in the country, with an average per visitor of 1,964 euros compared to the national average of 1,392 euros. It also details that this is due to an increase in the average stay of travelers, which in 2025 would have been 6.44 days. Aspects that do not convince López as justification for an evaluation, since she considers it makes no sense to audit a program still in force (including 2026), and that the design of the work, in her opinion, includes “excessive spaces of ambiguity” and lacks “indicators to be able to evaluate the achievement of the planned objectives.” In contrast, the report itself acknowledges that it is an intermediate evaluation. These are the grounds for a train wreck.
Thus, the Más Madrid representative repeatedly shows her rejection of the project. This specialist, , considers the proposal “irrelevant,” “untimely,” and “imprecise.” And she issues a warning that echoes through the halls, resisting even the plushest carpets: the preparation of the report may pose “reputational risks” for the Chamber, since, in her opinion, “it does not meet the essential technical requirements.”
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The situation worsens when the work is done and López has access to its content. She describes it as “unrigorous,” “incomplete,” and “rushed” as a culmination of a dissenting vote in which she warns that many of its contents “breathe” and “sound” like the “voice” of the audited entity, given the number of contents that are an almost literal transfer of documents prepared by the same.” In other words, she questions the analytical independence of the report.
The harshness of the criticism, and its public transmission through the organization’s website, are unprecedented. But both parties participate in the clash, since López’s dissenting vote is accompanied by another from Cossío to support her own report. Another curiosity, as she takes the opportunity to insinuate that her colleague contributes to the work environment “toxicity and abusive and inappropriate language.”
“The arguments put forward by councilor Ms. Verónica López Sabater to support her dissenting vote on this Report lack sufficient technical solidity and present notable deficiencies in their legal basis, all accompanied by a tone not only inappropriate in a technical control institution such as the Chamber of Accounts but bordering on insult,” she complains. “Finally, the observing councilor is requested, without prejudice to her right to vote as she sees fit according to her criteria, in order to promote an optimal work environment, free of toxicity and abusive and inappropriate language, to refrain from making constant accusations of ‘discretion,’ ‘inefficiency,’ ‘ineffectiveness,’ ‘unsuitability,’ ‘impertinence,’ ‘lack of motivation’… simply because the proposals of other Council members do not coincide with her criteria.”
The vice president defends that tourism management, which moves large amounts of money, is an “area of risk to investigate.” That both the Spanish Court of Auditors and the European Court of Auditors, as well as most external control bodies of the Autonomous Communities, include this matter among their priorities, “tourism being, moreover, the audit area considered this year as the most prominent transversal risk by the European Organization of Regional External Public Sector Control Institutions (EURORAI).”
But the final work, in any case, does not leave major news, beyond technical recommendations (which question the design, control, and evaluability of the tourism policy) and the detection of a subsidy of 5,217.75 euros improperly awarded, which must be reimbursed. Another matter is what it causes in the internal life of the Chamber of Accounts: a wound with a poor prognosis that strains the work of the institution responsible for auditing the government of the Community of Madrid.
