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Cristina Herrero Airef
The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (Airef) -an organization whose task is to supervise the proper use of public resources- has revealed this Wednesday the details of the surveillance actions carried out by the institution in the last four years and has advanced a few lines on its plan for 2022.
The agency is already working on the third phase of its Spending Review (2018-2021) – a series of studies in which public spending on certain matters is evaluated – which will end in 2022. In this analysis, Airef has put the magnifying glass in a total of 13,850 million euros of spending. From them, 7,150 correspond to public aid to companies (financial instruments to support the productive sectors) and another 6,700 to urban waste management.
This third phase will be the last of a plan that, when it ends this year, will have measured the efficiency in spending a total of 104,100 million euros of public money in four years. Among them, the 35,000 million that have been analyzed in terms of tax benefits, another 13,500 destined for transport infrastructure or the 14,000 million on subsidy granting procedures stand out.
Airef highlights that the Government has already echoed some of these analyzes to make political decisions. For example, they mention that the rise in VAT on sugary drinks -which went from 10 to 21% in 2021- or the reduction in incentives for private pension plans They were driven by recommendations from the institution.
Aside from your Spending Review, Airef will specifically investigate the efficiency of the minimum vital income (IMV) and the minimum insertion income, a process that will start this year, but will last until at least 2026. In 2022, the study will focus on the design of the measure, management and analyzing its results. It is also expected that the agency will conclude its study on the impact of the funds allocated to development cooperation.
Apart from these measures, Airef has already launched its Spending Review for the next four years. So far, only the 2.2 billion study has been closed, but this figure might skyrocket if the Airef finally investigates the effectiveness of the 140,000 million that the Government invested in guarantees to companies for the pandemic. An analysis that the president of the organization, Cristina Herrero, sees as “relevant”.
They ask the Government to prepare a plan for when fiscal rigor returns
In the question time that followed the presentation of Airef’s plans, Herrero has once once more urged the Government to prepare a fiscal consolidation plan as soon as possiblethe medium term to face the return of the EU fiscal rules from 2023. This request coincides with those made by organizations such as the International Monetary Fund or the Bank of Spain
The fiscal rules of the EU -which oblige States with more than 60% of debt over GDP and with a deficit of more than 3% per year to take adjustment measures- were suspended in 2020 so that governments might meet the necessary spending to combat the pandemic.
Although the president of Airef sees it as “unthinkable” that these regulations be reactivated as they were before the pandemic, she does believe that “at the national level” Spain should be clear regarding “what the medium-term objectives are going to be”. “Beyond the fact that the global objective may be one or the other there are certain aspects that might already be reviewed and should already be reviewed”Blacksmith has warned.
The head of the institution has taken advantage of the occasion to request that the Airef staff be reinforced, which currently has 55 workers. Herrero has requested that 10 more places be incorporated to reach 65 “the minimum recommended by the IMF only for the fiscal review,” according to what he has said.
