The audit report on the General Account of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands for 2024, the first full year of the current administration, highlights that public companies have resorted to temporary staff hiring without effective oversight, despite regional regulations prohibiting it except in exceptional, urgent, and unavoidable circumstances.
Almost all public business sector entities, with the exception of Proexca, Sodecan, Essscan, Visocan, and Gesprotur, hired temporary personnel without any control over the exceptional nature of these contracts. Notably, the Canary Health Service (SCS) has temporary staff representing 77.2% of its total workforce, amounting to 34,802 workers out of 45,084.
The audit body concludes that the legal exception has become a widespread practice, lacking sufficient filters to verify the urgency and exceptionality of needs. The Court of Accounts also notes that since 2022, grounds for exceptionality and reporting obligations to the Directorate General of Planning and Budget have not been recorded, facilitating the incorporation of temporary staff without the prior control that previously acted as an administrative safeguard.
These irregularities are not the only ones detected. The company Visocan failed to submit its budgets on time, impacting the aggregated figures of the public business sector. Additionally, public business entities Puertos Canarios and Essscan failed to meet the deadlines for formulation and accountability.
Regarding administrative contracting, the Consorcio El Rincón did not submit contractual information, and the Canary Agency for Environmental Protection sent an incomplete summary. In the public business sector, Asista, Gestur, and Visocan omitted their annual contract lists, while Essscan provided no information at all. The Fiisc included contracts as minor ones that exceeded the legal threshold, and Funcatra included contracts that should have been excluded.
Within autonomous bodies, the Canarian Housing Institute (Icavi) has pending subsidies to justify totaling 160.9 million euros. Meanwhile, the SCS closed its budget with an 80 million euro deficit due to expandable credits without coverage, a mechanism that the Court of Accounts reminds should be exceptional.
