The Basque Court of Public Accounts has approved Leioa's 2023 accounts with reservations

The Basque Court of Public Accounts (HKEE) has definitively approved the 2023 audit report of the Leioa City Council, in the Plenary Session held on May 21, 2026. The agreement establishes the publication of the report’s conclusions in the official gazettes, in accordance with Article 13.2 of Law 1/1988. The text was published in the Official Gazette of Bizkaia (BOB), issue number 179, on September 18, 2026, in section III, with the official reference BOB-2026a179-(III-144).

The report was carried out within the Annual Work Program of the Basque Court of Public Accounts, following the requirements established by Law 1/1988 of February 5. The audit covered two areas: legality —budget, debt, financial operations, personnel, works, supply and service contracts, subsidies, and public law revenues— and accounting. The provisional results were sent to the council on March 11, 2026, for the submission of allegations; all submitted allegations were analyzed and evaluated, and have been attached to the report. The agreement was signed by Ana Helguera Líbano, president of the HKEE, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, on May 21, 2026.

Leioa had 32,491 inhabitants on January 1, 2023. In addition to the council, it has two autonomous bodies: Soinu Atadia and the Basque Language Institution. Furthermore, it participates in three supramunicipal entities: the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium, the Bizkaia Transport Consortium, and the Haurreskolak Consortium. The General Account was approved by the municipal Plenary Session on July 24, 2024.

Opinion: faithful image but with legal exceptions

In the opinion of the Court, the council’s annual accounts provide a faithful image of the assets and financial position as of December 31, 2023, and are consistent with the applicable accounting and budgetary regulatory framework. Regarding legality, however, the opinion is qualified: the entities complied with the law regulating their economic-financial activity, except for the non-compliances recorded in the report. The Court stated that it identified no other significant risks during the audit.

Deficiencies detected in procurement

After analyzing eight contracts, these are the main findings:

• Four services, with an expenditure of 688,306 euros, were contracted without any legal procedure; they should have been processed, at a minimum, through a simplified open procedure.
• In 2023, the city council continued to execute six expired contracts, spending 1.8 million euros without contractual coverage, failing to meet the three-month advance required by Article 29.4 of the LCSP.
• The contract for the collection and transport of urban waste (32.4 million euros, incorrectly classified in 2013) was not processed according to harmonized rules and should not have been extended.
• The modification of the cleaning contract for municipal buildings (7.2 million euros) was neither formalized nor published in the DOUE.
• In the calculation of the urban transport guarantee (2.1 million euros), only one year was taken into account instead of the four-year execution period.
• In seven contracts (49 million euros), prices that matched the tender type received a positive score.
• Two works (1.6 million euros) had delays of eleven and eight months, beyond the periods of three and six months, and no penalty or extension of time was received.
• 13 services processed through minor contracts, totaling 404,372 euros, should have been processed, at a minimum, through a shortened simplified open procedure.

Budget and accounting

Deficiencies have also been detected in the financial records:

• The 2023 general budget was not definitively approved before December 31, 2022.
• At the end of the exercise, direct expenditures of 735,807 euros were not included in the budget, although they were registered in the patrimonial accounting.
• Financing diversions are 3.8 million euros lower than what the liquidation shows.
• Councilors’ allowances, 86,085 euros, were registered in the personnel expenses chapter instead of the current goods and services purchase chapter.
• The staff lists (RPT) do not include six workshop monitor positions, despite being structural requirements.

Grants and other notes

Three grant recipients (55,877, 25,000, and 15,000 euros) did not provide certification that three quotes were requested, even though the grantable expenses exceed the minor contract limit. The justification for a grant of 21,836 euros given to a retirees’ association does not show any details of other income or grants that funded the activity. The ICIO tax ordinance provides a 50% bonus for works under 6,010 euros, which has no place in the provincial regulations. Regarding payment terms, the city council’s autonomous bodies paid more than half of the obligations totaling 265,452 euros overdue; the city council, meanwhile, paid 27% and 6.7 million euros overdue. The General Urban Planning Plan has not been adapted to the current regulations.

City Council allegations

The City Council submitted allegations, which have been attached to the report. Among others, the council states that some of the contracts that were expired in 2023 were formalized later —home-to-home assistance in September 2023, the removal of containers in March 2023— and that the classification of councilors’ allowances will be corrected in 2026. Regarding payment periods, the council provided 2024 data: the council’s average was 28%, and that of the autonomous body was between 15.66% and 17.37%. The revision of the urban planning plan awaited the Partial Territorial Plan of the Bilbao Metropolitan Area, which was published in May 2025.

The report carries out the public control of municipal management and marks the path for the Leioa City Council to follow: tightening contracting procedures, adjusting budget registration, and meeting payment deadlines. Publishing the conclusions in the official gazette gives citizens and the council the opportunity to use the report as a basis to ensure the control of accounts in future events.

Fuente: Boletín Oficial de Bizkaia (BOB), núm. 179, 18 de septiembre de 2026, Sección III, pp. 1-11 (official reference: BOB-2026a179-(III-144)).