The Basque Court of Auditors has revealed irregularities in Leioa's 2023 accounts

The Plenary of the Basque Court of Auditors definitively approved the audit report of the 2023 accounts of the Leioa City Council during the meeting held on May 21, 2026. The decision reveals 1.8 million euros in expenditure without a contract and serious bidding irregularities in seven contracts totaling 49 million euros. The agreement was published in issue number 179 of the Official Gazette of Bizkaia on September 18, 2026, with the official reference BOB-2026a179-(III-144).

The report was carried out in accordance with Law 1/1988 and the annual work program of the Basque Court of Auditors, and takes as its subject the 2023 General Accounts of the Leioa City Council: legality (budget, debt, financial operations, personnel, works, supply and service contracting, subsidies, and public law income) and accounting. The Council had 32,491 inhabitants on January 1, 2023, and has two autonomous bodies, Soinu Atadia and the Basque Language Institution; furthermore, it participates in the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium, the Bizkaia Transport Consortium, and the Nursery Schools Consortium.

The General Accounts were approved by the City Council’s Plenary Session on July 24, 2024, and the provisional results were notified to the Council on March 11, 2026, so that allegations could be presented. The report was made final through an agreement signed by Ana Helguera Líbano, president of the Basque Court of Auditors.

Expenditure without contract and illegal processing

In the opinion of the Court, the Council continued to execute six expired contracts in 2023, and the expenditure for these amounted to 1.8 million euros without a contract, without the three-month advance required by article 29.4 of Law 9/2017. Additionally, the costs of four services, amounting to 688,306 euros, were contracted without any legal procedure, whereas in each case at least a simplified open procedure should have been used.

Similar failures were found in other expenditures:

• One service, with an expenditure of 63,524 euros, contracted without any legal procedure.
• Two expired contracts, 77,407 euros without a contract.
• 13 provisions processed via small-scale contracting, 404,372 euros, which required a shortened simplified open procedure.

Bidding irregularities in seven contracts

After analyzing eight contracts, the Court recorded several errors. In seven contracts (files 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8), awarded for 49 million euros, prices that matched the bidding type received a positive score under the economic offer criterion. In the Cleaning of municipal buildings and premises contract (file 5), awarded for 7.2 million euros, the contracting committee had only two members, while the regulations require at least three.

Other errors:

• Self-cleaning toilets supply and maintenance contract (file 8), awarded for 280,992 euros: one award criterion was maintenance for up to 10 years, while the specifications established 3 years.
• Urban transport contract (file 4), awarded for 2.1 million euros: only one year was taken into account for the guarantee calculation, despite a four-year term.
• Sports services contract (file 6), awarded for 1.7 million euros: the awardee did not fulfill the commitments for the treatment of personal data in writing.
• Urban cleaning and solid waste collection contract (file 3), awarded for 32.4 million euros and incorrectly classified in 2013: it was not processed according to the harmonized regulation and should not have been extended.
• Two works (files 1 and 2), awarded for 1.6 million euros: delays of eight and eleven months, over terms of six and three months, without penalties.

Other failures and the City Council’s allegations

In the area of budget and accounting, the Court stated that the approval of the 2023 budget was not carried out before December 31, 2022, expenses of 735,807 euros were not included in the budget, and councilors’ allowances, amounting to 86,085 euros, were registered in the wrong chapter. Regarding the payment terms to suppliers, 27% of the City Council’s obligations, 6.7 million euros, were paid overdue, and in the case of autonomous organizations, more than half of what was paid, 265,452 euros.

The City Council submitted allegations, stating that expired contracts were formalized in 2023 and 2024, the registration of allowances will be corrected in 2026, and payment terms have significantly improved in 2025. The Court, however, maintained the report as is, because the allegations either confirm the described situation or are not documentedly justified.

Impact

The report shows that the financial situation of the Leioa City Council is correct in terms of its financial image, but with exceptions regarding legality, and it contains the most serious failures in the area of procurement. Furthermore, the agreement orders the publication of the consequences in the corresponding official gazettes, according to article 13.2 of Law 1/1988.

Source: Official Gazette of Bizkaia (BOB), number 179, September 18, 2026, section III, pp. 1-11. (official reference: BOB-2026a179-(III-144)).