Dealing In The Cosmetic: Party finances

The Tribunal de Cuentas is the Spanish equivalent of the UK's Audit Commission, meaning that it vets government and public sector accounts. Its members are voted on to the tribunal by Congress and by the Senate. Their appointments are, therefore, not totally independent of political power, but once appointed they are meant to be independent.

Earlier this month the tribunal released a report which was so damning that it should have caused a massive outcry. Somehow, it didn't. This report detailed cases of tax fraud and financing irregularities committed by mostly all of Spain's leading political parties, which therefore included both the Partido Popular and PSOE. These irregularities amounted to offences in respect of false accounting (not showing real income and expenses), unlawful debt cancellation and donations received and loans to other organisations. They related to the financial year 2012. Accounts for 2013 and 2014 are to also be placed under scrutiny, though when reports might be issued isn't known.

The tribunal's findings support much of what is said about the lack of transparency of party funding and about what has been styled as the corrupt nature of the political system and of the leading parties in particular. That the report didn't cause the massive outcry which might have been expected could be put down to the fact that no one was in the least bit surprised. It might also be attributable to the difficulties which any of the parties would have faced in being critical. As they are more or less all fingered, it is impossible to seek political advantage by accusing rivals of allegedly corrupt activity.

As damning as the report is, why has the tribunal not taken action before against political parties? The constant claims of irregularities in their financing would surely have required that it should have. One reason may have something to do with the nature of the make-up of the tribunal's board and of appointments at the tribunal. Among the directors is the brother of the former Partido Popular prime minister, José María Aznar. There is also Javier Medina, the president of the audit section, who has been associated with the tribunal since the late 1970s and is linked to the PP. His wife, brother and sister all work at the tribunal. In addition to these individuals, there was - as an El País blog reported last February - the wife of the Spanish Ambassador to the UK, while a PSOE appointee at the tribunal had his sister-in-law working there.

Spanish media have been clear in pointing out the nepotism as well as implying that the tribunal's independence has not been as it should. Getting to grips with political party financing, therefore, was potentially only ever going to be a sham or cosmetic exercise, as one report styled it. However, it could well be that the charges of nepotism shook the tribunal into action and perhaps they shook the political parties up as well. Would the parties have known what the tribunal was going to report? They may well have done. Just before Christmas, and so a couple of weeks before the report came out, a third meeting of parliamentary representatives of various parties agreed several measures to be placed in front of Congress for approval. These included banning corporate donations altogether and putting an end to the practice whereby banks would write off debts held by political parties, a practice which has been common for years. They also agreed that illegal party financing would be included as a crime in the penal code. Why hadn't it been before? A very good question.

So, the agreement was made and then the report appeared, echoing much of what had been agreed. The tribunal's report was damning and also unique in issuing such a "reprimand". A reprimand!? Is that all?

The timing of the parliamentary agreement and of the report have to be questioned for more than just the short period between them. There was surely another dynamic compelling some rapid response. In one word ... Podemos. The main political parties, and to the PP and PSOE have to be added the likes of the Basque National Party and the two parties in Catalonia which form Artur Mas's CiU, are running scared. Podemos's assault on corruption, which includes the corrupt nature of the political system and apparatus, has made them act in the hope that they can staunch the flow of support towards Podemos.

It's all a bit too late though and has the feeling of attempts to save skins, those of the main parties and of the tribunal. There wasn't a massive outcry over the report because it simply confirmed what everyone knew or suspected, while, unless it is reformed, the tribunal's credibility is too enfeebled for there to be more than a suspicion of a belated cosmetic exercise by a body controlled by the very forces it is supposed to control.