Spanish universities accused of avoiding monitoring

Spanish universities are too big and have created structures with the sole purpose of avoiding proper monitoring of their financial affairs, says the national court of auditors.

In a report published on 9 February, the court says that public universities have created at least 574 entities, which have adopted the legal form of foundations or societies.

According to the report, these entities “have not always been created as a response to new needs or managerial streamlining. Some of them had the deliberate aim of avoiding internal controls on budget and management”. Their existence, the court said, increased universities’ freedom to take decisions on staff and spending in times of austerity and shrinking budgets.