PSOE and PP seek measures so that the parties do not evade the prohibition that they forgive debts

MADRID, 16 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PSOE and the PP agree on the need to strengthen the law to prevent political parties from circumventing the prohibition on total or partial forgiveness of the debts they have contracted with financial institutions, a matter that the Court of Auditors has been warning about. in recent years.

The Law on the Financing of Political Parties establishes, since 2015, that credit institutions may not cancel all or part of the debt owed to political formations. "Forgiveness is understood to be the total or partial cancellation of the principal of the credit or of the interest due or the renegotiation of the interest rate below those applied under market conditions," the regulation specifies.

However, the Court of Auditors has been pointing out the need to make it clear that this prohibition cannot be circumvented "through non-payment of the debt due indefinitely, so that, in practice, it is not liquidated".

Both the PSOE and the PP have taken up the inspector's glove and have presented proposals in this regard before the Mixed Commission (Congress-Senate) for Relations with the Court of Accounts. In both cases, they urge the Government to reinforce the norm so that this prohibition cannot be circumvented by failing to pay the overdue debt indefinitely.

In addition, the PSOE has registered a package of proposed resolutions to the audit report of the accounts of the parties and related foundations corresponding to 2017, relating to the contributions that the institutional groups make to their respective political parties.

In one of their proposals, to which Europa Press has had access, the Socialists ask that "for legal certainty" the "express possibility" for these institutional groups to make contributions to their parties be regulated. Specifically, they speak of "achieving the necessary harmonization" between the provisions of the Law on Party Financing and the Law on the Bases of the Local Regime.

The Court of Accounts defends that this Law of Bases of the Local Regime should establish the "conditions and requirements" so that the groups could make contributions to their parties and stresses that, in any case, these should "respond to the purpose of the economic endowment assigned to them, being, therefore, said contributions linked to the fulfillment of the functions that the institutional groups have attributed".

In this regard, the inspector suggests that the collaborative relationships between the political parties and their institutional groups be formalized through agreements that include the services that the political party undertakes to provide to each political group, with an economic valuation of the themselves, as well as the amount to be contributed annually by the groups to offset the cost of said services.

The PSOE does not go into such detail in its proposed resolutions, but it is committed to promoting the consolidation of the accountability of institutional groups so that it reflects a "true image" of reality. It also advocates taking measures to avoid "arbitrary and contrary actions" to the law in relation to these contributions by the Interventions of the Municipal Funds.

Another of his proposals seeks that the coalitions that, once the Chambers are constituted, build an autonomous entity and different from the formations that comprise it, have to register in the party registry and submit their annual accounts to the inspector.

The Socialists also consider it pertinent to reform the Party Financing Law to "clearly define what is to be understood by the concepts of contributions and donations" in order to avoid doubts about what income must be entered in each of the accounts that the parties to receive those amounts.

On the other hand, the PSOE proposes that the presentation of the accounts for a financial year after the Court of Accounts has carried out its preliminary draft of the control of the accounting of the parties that did present it on time is considered a serious infraction.

On its side, in its resolution proposals, the PP accepts the suggestion of the Court of Auditors and opens to review the maintenance of the subsidies that the parties receive annually to meet their security expenses, some aid that was created in their moment due to the existence of ETA. The PSOE does not say anything about this possibility in its initiatives.

In addition, the 'popular' demand that the Ministry of the Interior update the Registry of Political Parties in order to be able to know which formations are obliged to send their accounts to the Court and that they apply the measures foreseen so that the formations that during two or more years present a negative patrimonial situation draw up a recovery plan in order to prevent them from declaring themselves insolvent.

PSOE and PP have also registered proposals related to the last audit of foundations linked to parties, which dates from the 2019 and 2019 financial years. Thus, the PSOE wants to urge these entities to adjust their actions to that of their foundational purposes, preventing them from their activity "is limited to the mere possession of real estate or the obtaining of resources" for the parties to which they are linked. The PP goes further and suggests sanctions for foundations that do not conform to their foundational purposes.

Socialists and 'popular' coincide in encouraging inactive entities of this type to dissolve and, in addition, the PP requests that the registration of foundations in the specific section of the Register of Political Parties be established as a requirement to obtain public subsidies.

Finally, the PP asks to change the law to set a minimum amount to proceed with the mandatory notification, within three months of its acceptance, of donations from legal persons to the Court of Accounts, taking into account that this institution requests and analyzes the complete list of contributions and donations in the development of inspection work.