The president of the Court of Accounts of the Canary Islands, Pedro Pacheco, warned this Monday about the weakness of anti-fraud and anti-corruption systems of the municipalities of the Canary Islands, based on the analysis of a significant sample of eight municipalities where 40% of the islands' population lives.
In general, in many cases with the exception of the two Canary Island capitals, the reports from the Court of Accounts detect absence of ethical codes, of corruption reporting channels that guarantee the anonymity of informants or of a strategic planning.
Also, there is a lack of personnel and material resources and, in many cases, the adoption of anti-fraud measures is merely formal due to a legal requirement to attract European funds, according to Pedro Pacheco.
The audits on internal control and anti-fraud measures have been carried out on the municipalities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, Telde, Antigua, Breña Alta, La Victoria de Acentejo and Agaete.
The results detect incomplete, fragmented or non-formalized systems in most of the analyzed institutions.
The Court of Accounts recommends adopting a preventive organizational culture, based on anticipation and prior planning, as opposed to reactive logic, which requires overcoming a formalistic approach with "cut and paste" measures adopted to comply with legal requirements or access to European funds.
Pacheco has warned that in some cases the non-compliance with preventive anti-fraud measures has led some municipalities to consider the return of European funds.
One of the key shortcomings, according to Pacheco, is the uneven and deficient implementation of reporting channels for possible situations of fraud or corruption that are easily accessible and fully guarantee the anonymity of the whistleblower.
The Court of Accounts proposes the implementation of ethical codes by all municipalities, since for now only those of the two capitals have them.
The development of integral control systems is also proposed, beyond the role of the Intervention, and a strategic planning of fraud risk management.
Furthermore, Pacheco has emphasized the need for the anti-fraud systems required for European funds to be extended to the entire municipal management, since currently there are two parallel systems depending on whether there is an external integrity requirement from Europe.
"It is incomprehensible that a public entity manages some funds with ethical and integrity principles" if the funds come from the EU and that it manages the other funds "without those ethical integrity principles," Pacheco stated.
For the president of the Court of Accounts, "it is taking too long" to correct that incoherence.
Integrity is not only an obligation due to external regulations, but a system of guarantees for public management and therefore it must be a strategic decision of each administration to strengthen citizen trust and guarantee transparency, he explained.
