There is no sign of tension in the corridors of the Las Palmas Port Authority ahead of the imminent arrival of the National Audit Office (ONA), the equivalent of the FBI within the General State Comptroller’s Office (IGAE). When Canarymaritime asked about the agency in the port complex’s technical offices last Friday, more than one official gave a surreal response: «Isn’t that the Moroccan King’s private holding company?» The confusion, although straightforward and spontaneous, illustrates the institution’s detachment from the reality of how the state operates. Groupe ONA (Omnium Nord-Africain) is indeed the most influential business and industrial conglomerate of the Alaouite family in Rabat; however, in the state budgetary sphere, ONA represents the executive arm of public financial oversight within the administration.
A €14 million tax hole
Far from the Moroccan Royal Palace, the real problem in the Bay of Gran Canaria is strictly accounting-related and affects the port complex’s administrative framework. The IGAE has detected a series of projects deemed toxic within the Port Authority’s internal management. These irregularities, according to the IGAE’s own published reports, including one in Invente, have resulted in a genuine €14 million tax amnesty. The public audit is unequivocal: a tax exemption of this magnitude on port fees and assessments should never have occurred.
The legacy of the technical framework
Calm prevails at the port headquarters because attention is not focused on the current presidency of Beatriz Calzada. The sources consulted agree that the fraud did not originate with the recent political leadership, but rather with the technical framework embedded for years in the institution’s internal structure, which places Francisco Trujillo on the organizational chart. It was within that network of middle managers and department heads that the files and accounting decisions enabling the cancellation of multimillion-euro debts were consolidated. Despite the seriousness of the IGAE’s findings, the port’s corridors continue to operate with their usual inertia, oblivious to any immediate inspection.
ONA’s legal authority
The National Audit Office is no minor player in the Ministry of Finance’s organizational structure. Formally established under Royal Decree 405/1996 and elevated to the rank of Deputy Directorate-General by Royal Decree 1330/2000, ONA serves as the central pillar of the National Audit System. Its mandate ranges from drawing up technical standards for the public sector to planning and carrying out financial oversight of state bodies. Following the reform introduced by Royal Decree 1182/2020, ONA also acquired key powers as the Control Authority for the Recovery and Resilience Facility and responsibility for the ongoing supervision of the institutional public sector.
Control structure and divisions
Under the direct supervision of the State Comptroller General, ONA carries out its activities through six specialized divisions. Public Audit Division I and Public Audit Division II are responsible for planning and conducting audits of public bodies. Meanwhile, European Funds Control Divisions I and II oversee the management of EU allocations and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, while the Grants Control and Information Division manages the National Database. Finally, the Permanent Financial Control Coordination Division oversees regulatory development and the standardization of procedures throughout the country.
Impunity on the pier
Although ONA has the legal authority to deploy its national audit teams to any entity in the institutional public sector, nobody in Las Palmas is preparing files or reviewing sanction proceedings. The disconnect between the seriousness of the IGAE’s reports and the Port Authority’s passivity exposes a flaw in the oversight system. While the €14 million tax amnesty remains on the pages of official reports, the port complex continues its daily routine, shielded by geographical distance and by the widespread belief that public auditing is merely a distant acronym confused with a business consortium from the neighboring country.
The article “Embarrassment at Las Palmas Port as IGAE’s ONA Is Mistaken for the Moroccan King’s Holding Company” was first published on canarymaritime.com.
