Media notes on Aragon covid funding and budgetary outcomes

Two and a half years into the pandemic, as European and national funds flowed into Aragon, the first major audit of public spending reveals a clear pattern. Aragon received more money than it allocated specifically to fight covid, with portions surpassing 370 million euros used to shrink the deficit and pay bills not directly tied to the virus. This was permissible because the funds were treated as unconditional and without a defined target.

These findings come from the Aragon Accounts Chamber’s review of how the covid crisis affected the autonomous government’s budgets for 2020 and 2021.

The key figures show covid-related spending of 506 million euros in both years, plus 963 million euros in state contributions. A resource surplus of 373 million euros emerged, while revenue losses in regional treasuries tied to activity limits and mobility restrictions totaled 84 million euros. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

The report notes that the additional income helped significantly reduce the year-end balance, resulting in 413 unbudgeted invoices and ending 2020 and 2021 with notable deficit relief. Under the European System of Accounts ESA, a 2020 surplus of 61 million euros (0.17% of regional GDP) is reported, followed by a 56 million euro deficit in 2021 (−0.15% of regional GDP). [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

The document emphasizes that covid funding from both the Aragon government and the Court of Accounts was unconditional. It states that the use of public resources met all legal requirements. It even highlights covid funds from the Aragon Treasury Ministry, which supported more than healthcare—helping keep public services steady and enabling businesses to endure the crisis. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

In particular, the report notes that the revenue increase helped to clear the recurring budget deficit in Health and Education, reducing it by 51 million euros to 205 million. About 100 million more euros were directed to improve the overall balance, lifting 413 accounts to a stronger footing and bringing the end of 2019 and 2020 toward a healthier financial position. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Spending in the most affected departments

The audit focuses on departments and agencies hit hardest by the pandemic. Health spent 143 million euros in both years, Education spent 9 and 27 million, and IASS recorded 13 million in 2020 and 3 million in 2021. The remaining departments and organizations spent 47 million in 2020 and 121 million in 2021, mostly as subsidies. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Although the autonomous community created an accounting code to track covid expenditures separately, the code was not widely used outside of IASS. That limited auditors in identifying covid-related spending and constrained oversight. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Because these expenses involve personnel, resources were largely used to bolster health and education staff, procure needed goods and services, and support those most affected through subsidies. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

168 million in staff costs

Staff costs totaled 168 million euros across the two years, with 140 million allocated to Health to strengthen healthcare personnel since the pandemic began. By September 2020, most of the 22.5 million and 1.7 million allocated to the Aragon Social Services Institute under the Education Ministry were spent in 2020, when nursing homes faced the sharpest challenges. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Expenditures for goods, services, and equipment to manage the pandemic totaled 180 million euros (105 million in 2020 and 75 million in 2021). [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

94% of new contracts used emergency procedures

The crisis demanded urgent hospital care, protective gear, testing, medical supplies, housing arrangements, computer systems, field hospitals, and related services. Some costs tied to contracts already in progress before the emergency was declared. In total, 94% of new contracts were issued via emergency procedures. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

The Court of Accounts reviewed the 2020 contracts: 749 contracts worth 48 million euros to address the pandemic, of which 528 contracts, totaling 45.3 million euros, used emergency procedures. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

More than half of the emergency contracts came from Health (327 contracts totaling 35 million euros), followed by IASS (62 contracts worth 5.7 million euros). Other non-covid related emergency contracts totaled 14 million euros. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Although emergency contracting was heavily used in 2020, these procedures accounted for only 4.7% of total purchases of goods, services, and investments in 2020. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Auditing a sample of emergency contracts showed that the autonomous community often used emergency procedures correctly to obtain essential materials quickly, but the audit also exposed risks and some regulatory violations in this exceptional process. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

155 million in subsidies and 45,000 beneficiaries

Subsidies totaled 44 million euros in 2020 and 111 million in 2021. In 2020, the district administration managed 30 action lines and assisted 23,878 beneficiaries; in 2021, 11 covid hotlines served 21,496 beneficiaries. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

More broadly, the autonomous community supported tourism and hospitality, transport, business solvency, social services, and housing for the elderly, among other measures. The analysis shows that processing these aids created a heavy workload for ordinary operations already run on the same resources and without the basic data needed to distribute aid efficiently. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

None of the 2021 hotlines exhausted available credit

The supervisory body notes that some 2020 helplines, such as housing rental assistance or subsidies for agricultural loans, were not designed optimally and did not achieve the expected impact. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

In 2021 the report states that none of the reviewed lines exhausted funds, and enforcement fell short of expectations, ranging from 46% to 80%. The covid hotline for business solvency, designed by the State and funded with 65 million euros from a total of 141 participants, performed especially poorly. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

Companies with better results from 2019

The audit notes that some beneficiary firms benefited from subsidy lines and achieved stronger results than in the pre-pandemic year. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

The report ends with seven recommendations for public administrators. These include promoting centralized interdepartmental purchasing to boost efficiency, saving resources through economies of scale in common-use items, using the accounting system to monitor expenditures for traceability, combining contract records for completeness, establishing internal guidelines for emergency contracts to mitigate identified risks, and ensuring robust data for the National Subsidies Database to improve transparency and control of aid. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]

The findings have been forwarded to the Aragon government and the Cortes for review by a dedicated committee, which will share details with the deputies. [Source: Aragon Accounts Chamber]