The royal decree approved by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, which transfers to Catalonia the powers to manage the public supply and selective operations of civil servants with national qualifications, has unleashed a wave of Discontent Among directly affected professionals.
Municipal auditors, secretaries and treasurers responsible for legal and economic oversight of local entities warn against transfer Pedro Sanchez For requirements Carles Puigdemont It is “unconstitutional” and will make fighting corruption difficult.
He assured EL ESPAÑOL that “the transfer of powers has a direct impact on the setback of the mechanisms for preventing and detecting violations and corrupt practices in city councils. Nationalism wants to control them because it means controlling the inspector.” Alberto Bravo Quebo de LlanoVice President of the Professional Association of Secretaries, Auditors and Trustees of Local Administration Trusts (APSITAL).
Authorized national officials – secretaries, auditors and treasurers – are the main guarantors of the internal control and legality of the administrative actions of city councils. Bravo Quibo de Llano explains that its independence is “the first obstacle to bad practices, corruption and nepotism.”
“Comparative experience shows that when the audited body is not completely independent, the risk of deviations, tolerance for irregular practices or even political pressure increases. This transfer weakens this legal independence,” he says.
It must be taken into account that these nationally qualified officials are officials of the local administration, but their qualifications are national.
Its functions of public faith, legal advice, oversight and internal control over economic and financial management and budget management were crucial in stopping the separatist coup in the illegal referendum of 2017.
Its national character was specifically designed to ensure technical uniformity and neutrality with respect to local and regional political forces.
However, with the transfer to Catalonia, the general jurisdiction will be able to choose who exercises supervisory control.
“It breaks with the national system of selecting and providing officials who control legality. This means that the Catalan government will be able to set its own criteria, selective processes and appointments for a body that, by constitutional definition, is the state,” says the vice president of APSITAL.
“There are no technical reasons”
According to him, Sanchez’s move to Gontz is “another step for Catalonia in building its own institutional framework and in its separation from Spain.”
Among the main risks of this royal decree, Bravo Quepo de Llano explains, are “the loss of neutrality, regional inequality in common functions throughout the national territory, the fragmentation of local control and the weakening of the fight against corruption in the provincial assemblies.”
The representative of this group also emphasizes that this political concession to Gents has nothing to do with administrative efficiency, although the government emphasizes that this measure will allow “closer and more efficient management” of the civil service.
“The royal decree does not respond to technical reasons or to improve management. It will harm the filling of vacant positions and it will be difficult to create a group of opponents,” says Absital’s vice president.
He also condemns that this step represents a disruption of the state model “by the back door,” whereby “powers that belong exclusively to the state are secretly transferred.”
Bravo Quibo de Llano points out that experience has proven that the decision to relinquish powers in this area is of no benefit, as happened at the time. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Remember that there was a shortage of staff and a decline in the technical quality of operations, which led to Govt Mariano Rajoy To restore competition to the state.
In this sense, remember that the Basque Country, for example, has been trying for more than three years to obtain invitations in a selective process, which is still paralyzed.
For this reason, the group emphasizes that there must be a joint process so that there is equality of opportunity and operations between the autonomies. “The civil service system that has guaranteed neutrality and professionalism in Spanish city councils for a century is urgently being changed,” he concludes.