In May 2015, the popular candidacy Now Madrid came to the municipal government of Madrid with the support of the PSOE, which closed the mandate of the pp who had been there for 24 years. In the election campaign, Manuela Carmena's team launched a participatory program and the popular audit was one of the most supported proposals. Created the General Sub-Directorate for Debt Audit and Public Policies upon arrival at the City Hall. In May 2016, the Advisory Commission on Public Debt and Public Policies was established.

The committee consists of nine experts and the coordinator is Bibiana Medialdea, Professor of Applied Economics at Complutense University: “In the environment there is the demand for the popular audit. The municipal government has created audit bodies at the request of citizens, although there are few examples similar to what we are doing, even at the international level.” The Medialdea has been hired indefinitely by the Economy Area of the City Hall, but the work of the other members of the commission is voluntary.

The audit was approved in the municipal plenary, with the support of the PSOE and Citizens. “We call it a municipal debt audit and public policies, even if it seems contradictory: it is a municipal audit, because it is the City Hall that is doing it. Moreover, if the public did not wish to participate, the City Hall would continue to be responsible for carrying out the audit. But we are not only interested in debt, but also in municipal interventions that have had a significant impact on citizenship.”

The Advisory Committee decides to whom and for what purpose the necessary reports will be requested to explain what the management of the municipal governments of Madrid has been between 2003 and 2015: “The audit is linked to a democratic, profound and radical vocation of the citizens, with the desire to be aware of what is happening. We consider it a broad concept: we are analyzing municipal policies and interventions that have indications of negative impact on citizenship, all of them, in addition to debt, we are inspecting policies that have had an impact on employment and revenue, as well as those that have had an impact on social exclusion, gender inequality and the environment.”

Much remains to be published and it has been prudent about the legitimacy of the debt that may emerge from the Medialdea study: “To say whether or not debt is legitimate is moral and political. That must be done by the citizens, it is their right. A commission of experts cannot conclude that the debt is illegal, nor the City Hall.”

The debt of the City of Madrid is very high – EUR 5 billion in May 2016; 871 million have already been written off with the new municipal government – but it has not been the main reason for the audit. The Medialdea has made it clear that the City Hall is not in a debt crisis, because it is able to cope with payments. “However, if we look at how the City Hall has managed the resources, we would see that the ethical and political criteria, or human rights, have not been respected.”

Audit carried out by citizens

“In some departments of the municipal government of Madrid there seems to be fear, because it is yet to see if the audit will have a great citizen participation. If it is acknowledged that part of the debt has no legitimacy, there is a possibility of not paying that debt. What the City Hall is doing would not be called a popular audit, because the citizens have not participated, at least so far. We do not want the audit to be a citizen because there has been a referendum, but because citizenship has been empowered in the process.” Alfredo Sánchez is a member of the PACD’s Popular Debt Audit Platform. The audit proposal was presented to the Department of Economy one month after the arrival of Now Madrid to the City Hall, and although they have taken into account several points – the creation of a committee of experts and not only taking into account financial issues – they consider that the City Hall is going to stop participating in the citizenship and focus exclusively on the technical aspect. Therefore, audits are being promoted in the urban districts of Madrid.

The PACD reorganizes the methodology presented to the City Hall and supports the audit working groups created in Usera and Arganzuela, with the aim of extending the audit process to other nineteen urban districts in Madrid. Most of the members of the working groups are neighbours and neighbours in the area, who work with complete autonomy and decide on their own how to use the working methodology developed by the platform.

“We have tried to simplify the process to involve as many people as possible. It is true that it is good to have someone who knows something about accounting or budgeting, but what matters most is the neighbors, because they see what the money is spent on. In Usera, they have started to audit the management of the cultural houses and look at what courses are offered, to whom it benefits… That people see, you don’t have to be an expert.” Cleaning service contracts have also begun to be audited.

“With a little talk, we explain to neighbors what audit is, so they know it’s not just an economic part. Below, we give you some sheets to tell you which investments made in the neighborhood show signs of being illegitimate. For example, in Usera, they've started auditing Magic Box. It was built for the Olympic Games that were to be organised in Madrid, and now it is empty, only the Open Tennis in Madrid is organised for two weeks a year. In the last year, a private company has been outsourced and the service has to be paid. On the other hand, in Arganzuela the management of the fruit and vegetable fair has begun to be audited. The building is empty and has cost more than 200,000 euros since 2007.”

In the assembly they decide which cases will be audited by the neighbors, because they cannot work all – the Usera team is composed of about ten members, something similar in Arganzuela. The next step is to request information from the City Hall through the Transparency Portal. Precisely, the ineffectiveness of this service is the main obstacle to progress, as residents have to wait a long time to access the data and, in many cases, the information is not adequate.

Once the information is obtained, the citizens decide whether the analyzed is legitimate or not. The PACD has set a number of criteria: projects that exceed the planned expenditure by a large percentage, as well as projects that promote the use of cars rather than public transport, or when a company increases inequalities between women and men, can be described as illegitimate. In any case, the working groups have the criteria that they themselves have set.

Once the conclusions of each audited topic – the information collected on the Madrid website Audita Madrid – have been drawn, the working groups want to complete the general report of the urban district. Likewise, they want to combine the work done with the work carried out by the City Council so that they can also publish the results. More than a referendum of results, Sánchez states that the objective is to raise awareness about the issue, “so that citizens know that the budget is the responsibility of all and not of a few”.