The flow of public funds earmarked for major events in southern Gran Canaria has run up against the archipelago's accounting orthodoxy . A report by the Canary Islands Court of Auditors has uncovered irregularities in the oversight of subsidies and sponsorships managed by the public company Promotur Turismo de Canarias SA . The epicenter of this administrative disagreement lies at the heart of the accommodation and leisure industry in San Bartolomé de Tirajana : the sponsorship contracts for Winter Pride Maspalomas , one of the LGBTQ+ festivals with the greatest capacity to attract foreign spending on the entire island, according to its organizers.
The official audit reveals billing discrepancies in transactions processed under file codes eAJ-0218/2022 and eAJ-0119/2022 . The auditing body's technicians detected that public funds were paid against documents issued under the letterhead of " Winter Pride Maspalomas ." The anomaly lies in the fact that the official contracts were formalized with the company Isla Mundial SL , the actual licensee and organizer of the festival in the southern dunes.
The bureaucratic conflict led to a series of arguments between Promotur and the public auditors as they attempted to uphold the validity of the institutional payments. The public company's defense argued that the invoices were fully valid because they included Isla Mundial SL 's tax identification number in the footer—within the specific section for "payment details." According to the tourism company, the preferential use of the "Winter Pride Maspalomas" brand was simply a standard operating procedure based on its trademark and trade name.
The verification of documents submitted during 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 González , emphatically states 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.
