The decision by the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council to approve a report about the 2025 Carnival as the basis for a 5,000 euro payment intended for the promotion of the 2026 Carnival has raised questions. This situation is detailed in the administrative file that led to the advertising campaign's contracting.

The expenditure justification report, provided to the opposition, and the resolution signed by the councilor responsible for Festivities, which authorized the contract, reveal that the report in question, dated February 17, 2025, consists of eight photographs and nine paragraphs. It describes the previous year's Carnival, including aspects such as the reorganization of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Exhibition Center and the participation of artists like Wilfrido Vargas.

The contracting resolution specifies that the advertising campaign is “for the 2026 Carnival,” although a sentence in the second paragraph suggests that the contract was structured to circumvent certain thresholds of the Public Sector Contracts Law, related to the definition of minor contracts.

The “technical specifications of the service” in the contract include, as the first item to be provided by the contractor, a “branded content report on the great leisure offer of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival 2025, to be published on edatv.news, with materials provided by the advertiser.” This implies that the City Council itself agrees to pay for the promotion of the 2026 Carnival using a 2025 report, published in 2025.

The justification report issued on April 15 by the Festivities management also incorporates this 2025 report as part of the “2026 Carnival advertising campaign.” Additionally, two other promotional actions for the 2026 Carnival are certified: a report on post-Carnival cleaning tasks, dated February 24, 2026 (two days after its conclusion), and a 2-minute and 6-second video with festival images and interviews, broadcast in early March, when the 2026 Carnival had already ended.