EH Bildu Demands External Audit of Amurrio Town Council Contracts

The opposition group calls for an independent review of contracts from the last five years following objections raised by the municipal comptroller.

Generic image of documents and tools suggesting an audit or financial review.
IA

Generic image of documents and tools suggesting an audit or financial review.

EH Bildu has urged the Amurrio Town Council to conduct an external audit of contracts executed over the past five years, following the municipal comptroller's identification of various irregularities.

The opposition group will present a motion at the next Full Municipal Plenary Session to ensure this audit is awarded before June. The objective, according to EH Bildu, is to "implement measures to improve public management as soon as possible".
As explained by EH Bildu, the municipal comptroller has raised several objections related to last year's contracts, and "these are not the only ones". The sovereignist coalition highlighted that the comptroller has been preparing reports "throughout the entire legislature", but the latest report, which compiles contract objections from 2025, refers to irregularities exceeding 200,000 euros, "surpassing what could be considered a punctual error".
Furthermore, EH Bildu has denounced that in May 2024, 117,490 euros were paid via invoice for "a single contract", even though the limit for such procedures cannot exceed 15,000 euros annually. The same report mentions that since 2021, this maximum limit has been exceeded annually with the same company, and it is requested that measures be taken for the year 2026.

The municipal comptroller has raised several objections related to last year's contracts, and these are not the only ones.

The municipal government, formed by EAJ and PSE-EE, has responded to EH Bildu's request, seeking to contextualize the issue. They stated that municipal comptroller reports are conducted annually and that this is a "normal, regulated, and transparent procedure" that exists "in all town councils". They acknowledged that the 2025 report presents some objections, "as is customary", but added that the "main objection" is linked to a specific process: "the reorganization of the cleaning service to be provided through INDESA, opting for a public model with a greater social component".
Local government members have defended that this process required "transitional solutions" to "guarantee the continuity of the service while the model change was being completed", and that this objection is situated in that context. They also emphasized that the "Basque Public Accounts Tribunal, the highest external control body, has recently audited the Amurrio Town Council" within its "usual procedures". According to the government, there are "control and fiscalization mechanisms" that function "normally", therefore, they consider EH Bildu's proposal to be a "political initiative" rather than a "technical need".
In response to the Municipal Government's reply, EH Bildu has directly forwarded the comptroller's report to the media. It details that the comptroller has detected various irregularities: undue expenses, tacit extensions in contracting files that were non-extendable, or contracts processed as minor without being so. However, the report itself states that the comptroller did not propose suspending these services, as they were "works actually performed".
In three of these cases, the service contract had ended, and the Town Council continued to pay the same companies to continue providing the service, exceeding the legal limit of 15,000 euros. Examples include the cleaning service for Mendiko School (117,490.87 euros from May 1 to October 31, 2025), the extension of the contract for the production of the magazine Hauxe Da (23,067.87 euros from September 1 onwards), and the supply of bleach for summer swimming pools, which has exceeded the 15,000 euro limit for five consecutive years (26,400.72 euros in 2025). Finally, the contracting of films for the Amurrio Antzokia is also mentioned, having exceeded the 15,000 limit by 192.62 euros.