The Auditor’s Office detects irregularities in the reception service contracts
The Audit Office has identified several accounting anomalies in the contracts for the provision of services to the child and adolescent reception centers of the General Directorate of Child Care and Adolescence. In its report for the period 2016-2020, the Syndicate noted that the DGAIA extended several contracts without formalizing any extension document, although the services continued to be provided (https://www.softcatala.org/resum- of-texts-in-catalan/). It has also been observed the repeated use of the emergency procedure in the contracting of services in 2017 and 2018 without complying with the legally established reasons. In addition, modifications were introduced to the economic regime of the original contracts, causing a significant alteration.
Recognized Expense and Communications to the Government
The report also reveals that the expenditure recognized by the DGAIA in the centers exceeded the expenditure contracted in several years, without adequate legal cover for its recognition. To meet this expense, the DGAIA had to process several communications to the Government for the extrajudicial recognition of credit. These practices have been identified as possible grounds for liability according to current regulations.
Supervision of the Social Services Consortium of Barcelona
In addition to the irregularities at the DGAIA, the Syndicate’s report has also examined the Consorci de Serveis Social de Barcelona, highlighting the lack of formalization of annual extensions of the contracts awarded to companies providing childcare services and the adolescence of the Catalan capital. Likewise, it has been made clear that on certain occasions expenses were recognized without the necessary administrative support, generating situations of full legal nullity according to the Trade Union (https://www.softcatala.org/resum-de- texts-in-Catalan/).
Recommendations of the Trade Union
In response to these findings, the Union has issued recommendations to assess the needs and carry out economic studies of the cost of services, adjusting the prices of the modules and continuing with the regularization processes that have been initiated.