Eva Granados denies accounting irregularities at AECID

The Diplomat The State Secretary for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, denied this Wednesday in the Senate the existence of accounting irregularities at the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), denounced by the People's Party (PP) based on reports from the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) and the Court of Auditors regarding development aid. Granados appeared before the Committee on International Development Cooperation to report, among other matters, on the irregularities detected by the Court of Auditors at AECID and on the control deficiencies detected by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) in official development assistance, in both cases at the request of the People's Parliamentary Group (GPP). During her address, the State Secretary confirmed that, indeed, in July 2025, there were just over 21 million euros "unjustified" by the AECID, which is why the Court of Auditors opened an investigation. However, she asserted that by December of last year, when "the documents related to that procedure were leaked," half of the payments had already been reviewed, and currently, there are no files "to be reviewed" or pending justification. Therefore, she declared, "there is no issue." "Don't make the reports say what they don't say," Granados rebuked, accusing the People's Party (PP) of being guided by "the distorting press" instead of by the reports themselves. The State Secretary also recalled that, around the same time, AECID itself "categorically denied that there were any unjustified payments that would imply a loss of public resources" and that everything boiled down to "mere delays in administrative procedures for reviewing the justification of certain payments." These delays, according to Granados, are due to the fact that the AECID “does not have sufficient human resources to cope.” According to the State Secretary, the agency has suffered from “historical delays” in improving these administrative procedures “since at least 2016,” a problem that plagues the AECID “regardless of who is in power.” In any case, she insisted, “there has never been any misuse of public funds.” “This was the understanding of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office, which requested the case be dismissed,” she asserted. For her part, Senator Miriam García, of the PP, stated that “no one is questioning international cooperation.” “We are talking about something simpler: whether the Government is willing to accept for itself the same level of accountability it imposes on any citizen,” she warned. Therefore, she demanded that Granados provide the “documents” that demonstrate that “all funds managed directly or indirectly” by her Secretary of State “have complete traceability.” “If there is complete traceability, submit it. If there is comprehensive control, submit it,” she added. Furthermore, Miriam García described as “curious” the fact that the current director of AECID, Antón Leis, was appointed to the position of Deputy High Commissioner for Operations at UNHCR just after the government approved a contribution of 20 million euros to this UN agency, “the largest multi-year contribution in our history.” Therefore, she asked Granados “if the government was aware of this candidacy, if it participated in promoting it, and if Leis was involved in any files related to the agency he later joined.” In her response, the State Secretary asserted that “Spain has increased its contributions to United Nations agencies because the United Nations needs it, but especially because the people who are beneficiaries need it,” and she noted that Antón Leis “had a prior and subsequent professional career: these are called academic and professional rigor.”

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