The Audit Office of the Community of Madrid is facing a flood of oversight requests from the opposition, prompting its president, Joaquín Leguina, to inform the Assembly's Finance and Employment Commission of the impossibility of handling such a workload. According to Leguina, many of these requests are "repetitive" and represent a burden "impossible" to bear with available means.
In his letter, Leguina states that to satisfy all requests, it would be necessary to "completely reorganize the structure of the Audit Office, significantly increasing its staff and resources." The head of the auditing body suggests the possibility of "grouping similar requests" to "avoid repetitions and overlaps."
Leguina's criticisms are particularly directed at Más Madrid deputy, Marta Lozano, who was responsible for 26 out of the 30 oversight requests submitted in the first week of May. The president of the Audit Office invites reflection on the consequences if "other deputies were to do something similar."
It should be evident to anyone with a minimal understanding of this Chamber's functioning that carrying out such a number of audits at the Assembly's request is simply impossible
Más Madrid's response was swift. The progressive party has registered a Non-Legislative Proposal (PNL) urging Leguina to resign if "with his 125,000 euros annual salary he is not capable of doing his job." The spokesperson for the parliamentary group, Manuela Bergerot, stated that "Leguina was given a seat so that Ayuso could use his figure for propaganda."
Más Madrid criticizes that, instead of asking the Government of the Community of Madrid to provide adequate resources for the Audit Office, Leguina is addressing the Assembly to ask it to stop requesting that the office fulfill its duties. The party believes the solution would be to "provide the Audit Office with the necessary means to fulfill its function of economic and budgetary control of the public sector."
