Two and a half years after the outbreak of the epidemic and overflow of public resources Coming to the autonomous community from the European Union and the Spanish Government, the first major audit analysis of the use of public money reflects this: Aragon received more funds than it spent specifically to deal with the pandemic and the Government of Aragon some of the amounts (more than 370 million) reducing the deficit and paying bills not directly linked to the coronavirus is a legal thing as it is an “unconditional” fundSo it didn’t have a specific goal.
This is one of the results of the Aragon Accounts Chamber’s report on the impact of the covid-19 crisis on the budgets of the autonomous community of Aragon, exercises 2020 and 2021.
The main figures reflect spending on covid in both years at 506 million euros, with additional funds from the state at 963 million euros. 373 million resource surplus euro. this loss of income In regional cashiers, mainly due to the reduction in collections due to the cessation of activity due to restrictions and mobility restrictions, 84 million.
The report points out that “excess” income allows “Significantly” reducing account balance 413, i.e. unbudgeted bills, and “closing 2020 and 2021 with their best deficits in recent years”In terms of the European System of Accounts (ESA): 61 million surplus in 2020 (+0.17% of regional GDP) and a deficit of 56 million euros in 2021 (-0.15% of regional GDP)”.
Emphasizing that the covid funding from both the Aragon Government and the Court of Accounts is “unconditional”, they stated that the use of public resources is sufficient and complies with all legalities. They even drew attention to the covid fund from the Ministry of the Treasury of the Aragon Government. It has served not only to confront the health crisis, but to face all its consequences, to sustain public services and strengthen companies.
In particular, the report points out that the increase in revenue served to “clean up the recurring budget deficit of the Ministry of Health and Education, which has reached 205 million, by 51 million euros”. Also, “approximately other 100 million euros were allocated to lighten the balance of 413 accounts, which reached 69 million in 2020, adding 169 million at the end of 2019.
Spending in the most penalized departments
The analysis of expenditure carried out by the supervisory body focuses in particular on the departments and organizations most affected by the pandemic. a) Yes, Health spent 143 million each year analyzed, the Ministry of Education 9 and 27 million respectively, and IASS spent 13 million in 2020 and 3 million in 2021. The sum of the expenditures of the remaining departments and organizations, 47 million in 2020 and 121 million in 2021, mostly from subsidies.
Although the autonomous community has created a code in its accounting to distinguish and track covid spending from other spending, the lack of use outside of the IASS that uses it has made it difficult for auditors to identify it. this was considered a “limitation” to the scope of the Chamber’s oversight work.
Due to the nature of the expense, resources are mainly pay for the increase in socio-health and education staff needed to care for people affected by the pandemic; to the acquisition of goods, services and equipment necessary to deal with the emergency and, through subsidies, to support people and groups who are greatly exposed to its social and economic consequences.
168 million staff
Specifically, the expenditure on staff was €168 million over the two years: 140 million on Health to empower healthcare personnel since the declaration of the pandemic; As of September 2020, almost all of the 22.5 million and 1.7 million Aragon Social Services Institute, which corresponds to the Ministry of Education, which is mostly used in teacher employment, has been allocated to the 2020 fiscal year, when nursing homes are experienced the most. dramatic situations.
Expenses incurred to obtain goods, provide services, and equip to manage the pandemic: 180 million euros (105 million in 2020 and 75 million in 2021).
94% of new contracts are emergency
Under this roof, hospital care for covid patients, personal protective equipment, reagents, laboratory tests, respirators, medicines treatment of disease, housing reservation, computer applications, field hospitals, sample and human transportation service etc.
Some of this expense was attributed to contracts already in progress before the pandemic and state of alarm were declared; to rest, 94% of new contracts are signed with emergency procedure.
The Court of Accounts specifically analyzed the 2020 contract. 749 contracts worth €48m to deal with the pandemicOf these, 528 were awarded with an emergency procedure of 45.3 million euros.
More than half of the Covid emergency contracts were awarded by Health (327 contracts worth €35 million), followed by IASS (62 contracts worth €5.7 million). The auditors also examined other non-covid-related emergency contracts worth 14m euros.
Despite the heavy use of the emergency contract in 2020, the expenditure processed by this procedure represents only 4.7% of the expenditure on purchases of goods, services and investments (sections 2 and 6 of the 2020 budget).
Examining the sample of emergency contracts audited by the Chamber, autonomous community often used emergency procedure “correctly” to tender the necessary materials and services as soon as possible to deal with the pandemic, but The audit confirmed, on the one hand, the risks of this procedure, and on the other hand, some violations of the regulations. regulating this exceptional form of contract.
155 million Euro subsidy and 45,000 beneficiaries
Spending on subsidies was 44 million euros in 2020 and 111 in 2021. In the first of these two years, the district administration managed 30 lines of action and assisted 23,878 beneficiaries; the second had 11 COVID hotlines and 21,496 beneficiaries.
In general terms, the effort of the autonomous community, supporting tourism and hospitality, passenger transport, solvency and commercial competitivenessprovision of social services and hiring workers for housing for the elderly, among others.
Some results from the analysis of a file sample show that the processing of these aids by the autonomous community “puts a large additional workload on the ordinary activity managed with the same resources and without the basic data for the proper distribution of aid.
None of the 2021 hotlines have exhausted the available credit
In addition, the supervisory body notes that some helplines in 2020, such as housing rental assistance or agricultural cooperative loan subsidies, were “not designed correctly and did not have the expected impact.”
In 2021 the report states, “None of the lines reviewed had exhausted available credit, and all had lower-than-expected enforcement, between 46% and 80%.” The execution of the covid hotline for business solvency, which was designed by the State and given 65 million out of a total of 141 people recruited from the State, was particularly low.
Companies with better results from 2019
The audit also states that “some beneficiary companies they got help from various subsidy lines where they got a better economic result more than pre-pandemic exercise.
The report concludes with seven recommendations for public administrators. These include “promoting centralized interdepartmental purchasing to improve the efficiency, productivity and economy of public resources allocated to public procurement” and to exploit economies of scale in purchasing consumables for common use; using the accounting system monitoring of expenditures to ensure their traceability; combining information from different contract records to ensure completeness and homogeneity; Establishing internal instructions for the processing of emergency contracts that will help managers mitigate the risks identified in this report, and a Adequate control of the information to be provided to the National Subsidies Databasetransparency and effective control of aids on the same object.
The report has already been sent to the Government of Aragon and the Cortes for analysis by the committee designated for this purpose, which will let the deputies know the details.