The Municipal Audit Office has issued a critical report on the internal operations of the Seville City Council. The document, covering the 2025 fiscal year, describes an administration that, while meeting key economic indicators such as budgetary stability and financial sustainability, exhibits significant deficiencies in the daily management of public resources.
The report identifies a recurring pattern across various areas: poor planning, contracts expiring without timely renewal, executed expenses being regularized later, and the habitual use of exceptional procedures. The primary weakness detected lies not in a lack of funds, but in their administration.
A notable figure is the processing of 169 files in 2025 without proper oversight, amounting to over 9.25 million euros. 92% of these incidents relate to public procurement, often due to de facto extensions or continued services without valid contractual coverage, highlighting a lack of planning in the contract lifecycle.
Essential services such as maintenance, security, energy, and technology continue to operate after their contracts have expired because new tenders are not completed on time, forcing the City Council to regularize previously unplanned expenses.
The report also points to the almost systematic use of extrajudicial recognition of debt. This mechanism, intended for exceptional situations, was applied in 93.5% of audited files without prior fiscal control, shifting oversight from a preventive phase to mere post-hoc regularization.
Personnel management is also questioned, with 31 suspensory objections in 2025 impacting over 5.3 million euros, primarily concerning bonuses and extraordinary services for the Local Police and Firefighters, executed without prior authorization or sufficient credit. Subsidized activities also suffer from generalized delays in justification and inconsistent planning.
The Audit Office concludes that many incidents stem from structural weaknesses in planning, procurement, and expenditure tracking. It proposes an action plan including corporate contract planning, expiry alerts, and reorganization of subsidy management.
The report itself calls for more personal, technical, and technological resources for the Audit Office, citing structural insufficiencies that hinder full oversight. It requests an updated staff structure and modernization of IT systems.
In summary, the Seville City Council is presented as financially solvent but facing significant administrative management challenges, paying on time but often late, and resorting to exceptional measures due to a lack of better organization.
