El flow of public money intended for major events in southern Gran Canaria has crashed into the wall of the accounting orthodoxy of the archipelagoA report from the Hearing of Accounts of the Canary Islands has uncovered irregularities in the control of grants and sponsorships managed by the public limited company Promotur Turismo de Canarias SAThe epicenter of the administrative disagreement lies in the heart of the accommodation and leisure business of San Bartolomé: the sponsorship contracts of Winter Pride Maspalomas, one of the festivals geared towards the collective LGTBQ + with the greatest capacity to attract foreign spending on the entire island, according to them.
The official audit reveals billing discrepancies in transactions processed under the file codes eAJ-0218/2022 and eAJ-0119/2022The technicians of the oversight body detected that the payments of public money were settled against documents issued under the letterhead of “Winter Pride MaspalomasThe anomaly lies in the fact that the official award contracts were formalized with the commercial entity World Island SL, the actual licensee and organizer of the festival in the southern dunes.
The bureaucratic conflict led to a series of accusations between Promotur and the public auditors to try to salvage the validity of the institutional disbursements. The public company's defense argued that the invoices had full economic validity because they included in their footer—and within the specific section for “payment details”—the tax identification of World Island SL According to the tourism company, the preferential use of the "Winter Pride Maspalomas" brand name simply corresponded to an ordinary operating formula based on its brand and trade name.
The verification of the documents provided during the fieldwork demonstrated that the financial flow did indeed reach the bank accounts of the sponsored company. The auditors acknowledged the existence of this cross-referencing in the footnotes, but categorically refused to validate the practice. The resolution, signed by the president of the Court of Auditors, Pedro Pacheco GonzalezIt is emphatically stated that an external promotional logo can never replace the legal identity of the taxpayer.
The final resolution of the case upholds the reprimand to Promotur and leaves the warnings in the audit report intact. The oversight body bases its refusal on strict compliance with Article 6.1.c of Royal Decree 1619/2012, the state regulation that coordinates invoicing obligations for businesses. The law requires that all payment documents include the full name, surnames, and company name of both the issuer and the recipient, excluding trademarks from the legally valid sections.
The Winter Pride contracts, originally formalized in February and December 2022, are thus highlighted as a textbook example of failures in the oversight of negotiated procedures without prior publication. For businesses operating in the resorts of southern Gran Canaria, the ruling sends a clear warning: the flexibility that characterizes the marketing of large-scale events in Maspalomas vanishes completely when it comes to accountability to the regional government.
