The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León (PP), has repeatedly ignored reports from municipal accounting since the beginning of his term, raising more than 800 objections in just over a year and a half to push through contracts mainly linked to the organization of parties and events, according to the capital's PSOE.
The objections from the Audit Office are negative reports issued by municipal technicians when they detect serious irregularities in the processing of public spending. Despite these warnings, the mayor has systematically opted to override them by decree of the Mayor's Office, authorizing millionaire payments that, in many cases, were already previously committed
According to data provided by the socialists, the first objection was lifted just seven days after De León took office as mayor, in July 2023. In the remaining six months of that year, the mayor lifted a total of 183 objections. During 2024, the figure rose to 326, which is almost one per day, reaching a cumulative total of 509. So far in 2025, the PSOE estimates that nearly 300 new objections have been lifted, which would put the total above 800, pending official confirmation of the data from the last fiscal year.
From the PSOE, they assure that the procedure is systematically repeated: large-scale events are scheduled, companies close to the government group's political circle are contacted, financial commitments of millions of euros are made, and once the Audit Office issues an unfavorable report, the mayor overrides it to authorize payment.
The socialist spokesperson, Cristina Duque, considers it "incomprehensible and reckless" that the mayor "disregards municipal technicians in this way to sustain uncontrolled spending on parties." In her opinion, "a mayor without financial or administrative training cannot act as if the City Council were a bottomless pit, because this way of governing puts the economic stability of the council at risk."Duque also criticizes the attitude of the rest of the government group, which he accuses of "cheering and applauding" these decisions while demanding more funds for festive events, "ignoring technical warnings and the deterioration of public accounts."
