The Ourense City Council closed August with €26.5 million in unpaid invoices, some dating back to 2014, and an average payment period of 115 days. Treasury has issued an urgent report to unblock the files and warns of possible sanctions from the tax authorities.
The Ourense City Council ended August with €26.5 million in unpaid invoices to its suppliers, according to a report from the municipal Treasury. Of that amount, €26.4 million corresponds to obligations pending recognition, and some invoices have not been paid since 2014. The average payment period (PMP) stands at 115 days, nearly four times above the legal limit of 30 days set by state legislation.
The document, electronically signed by the acting Treasurer of the council, does not point to political responsibilities but issues a maximum urgency internal request to the various municipal departments to unblock a significant volume of accumulated invoices that have not been processed, as reported by Faro de Vigo. Treasury warns that all the receipts included in the attached list have already exceeded the legal 30-day deadline since their entry into the municipal accounting register.
The report details the main irregularities that keep the files stuck. Among them are invoices pending technical approval due to lack of signatures, spending proposals, or credit holds. There are also invoices marked with correctable defects by the municipal intervention, such as the absence of mandatory reports, lack of supporting documentation, or registration in incorrect budget items.
For these invoices stalled by the intervention, Treasury urges service heads to check if the corrective procedure has been completed and to send the corrected documentation to internal auditing to reactivate the payment files. It also warns of the existence of invoices stalled due to lack of available budget credit, which requires departments to coordinate with the Economic Management Service, and others linked to extraordinary payment mechanisms for suppliers that are still pending technical validation.
The financial body demands that the managing areas immediately carry out the necessary actions to regularise the invoices received between January 1, 2014, and July 20, 2026. Furthermore, it warns of possible sanctions from the tax authorities that may arise from non-compliance with legal payment deadlines, as well as the need to formally return through the CIVIDAS system invoices mistakenly assigned to the wrong department.
The Ourense City Council has not yet issued a public response regarding the measures it will take to correct the situation. The affected suppliers, many of whom are SMEs and self-employed, are still waiting to receive payment for their invoices, some of which are over a decade overdue.
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