The trial section of the Court of Auditors has dismissed the appeal of the vice president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Jesús Tovar (PP), against a provisional liquidation report that considers her responsible for an accounting deficit worth 88,000 euros.
The procedure is related to alleged irregularities in the justification of subsidies during her time as councilor for social welfare in the Arrecife City Council between 2019 and 2023.
In an order, to which EFE has had access, the trial chamber of the Court of Auditors dismisses all the arguments of the appeal, with the support of the Prosecutor's Office.
The actions originate from a letter from the Public Prosecutor's Office in which it highlighted alleged irregularities that an audit report of the Court of Auditors had appreciated.
What motivates the start of the responsibility is a decree signed by Tovar in February 2021, which declared all unjustified subsidies for which four years had passed since the end of the justification period to be time-barred.
In her appeal, Tovar opposes the liquidation report for five reasons: overreach of the investigative action, lack of notification, incorrect application of the statute of limitations, absence of accounting responsibility, and need for guarantees.
The Court considers that there is no defenselessness and that Tovar was able to appear, present allegations, and documentation. It says that the provisional liquidation report "amply meets the requirements of motivation" and that the current vice president raises in her appeal issues that affect the substance of the matter and that cannot be resolved at this procedural moment.
On the other hand, Tovar provided in the appeal a document prepared by the legal advice of the Arrecife City Council, which concludes that neither in the action of Tovar nor in that of the former PSOE councilors Victoria Sande and Eva de Anta, also considered responsible for that deficit, would all the elements that make up accounting responsibility concur.
Last Friday, the plenary session of the Arrecife City Council approved a motion from the PSOE, supported by CC, in which the mayor, Yonathan de León (PP), was urged to send that legal report prepared by the municipal services themselves.