Ayuso's penthouse becomes even more complicated: the Court of Accounts admits the complaint for possible damage to public coffers

The controversial Chamberí penthouse bought by the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso with 6.3 million public euros has opened this Tuesday a new institutional front. The Court of Accounts has admitted for processing the complaint for accounting responsibility filed by Más Madrid, which asks to investigate whether the operation caused damage to regional coffers.

The property was acquired in April by Planifica Madrid, a public company dependent on the Ministry of the Presidency. The regional Executive assured that it would serve as a temporary office for Ayuso during future works in the Real Casa de Correos, although the property was never used and its purchase remained outside public knowledge until it was revealed by the press.

Barely a day after the operation became known, the Madrid Government announced that it would put the penthouse back on the market. The deadline to submit offers ended this Monday and it is still unknown if there is any buyer willing to pay the 6,694,201 euros set as the minimum price.

The admission constitutes a first procedural step and still lacks a ruling on the merits. The file now goes to the Prosecution Section, which will have to decide whether to open preliminary proceedings or initiate a reimbursement procedure to recover public money that may have been lost.

A purchase without use and an empty public office

Doubts about the need for the penthouse have increased after it became known that Planifica Madrid had another office of 478 square meters available on Pedro Moreno street, next to Plaza de Castilla. The space, equipped with seven offices, three bathrooms and administrative areas, was barely seven meters smaller than the Chamberí home.

The Ministry of the Presidency has also not publicly clarified why it discarded that property before buying a luxury home of 485 square meters and a large terrace on Paseo del General Martínez Campos. Added to this is that the use of the penthouse as an administrative office clashed with municipal urban planning regulations, as it is a residential floor.

Más Madrid maintains that the final purchase bill could be around 6.68 million euros after adding about 378,000 euros for Property Transfer Tax and other notary and agency expenses. That amount would practically exhaust the margin with respect to the minimum price established for resale and could leave losses even if a buyer appears.

The formation has demanded the report that justified the acquisition, the property appraisals, the analysis of possible alternatives, the deeds, and the agreement of the Board of Directors of Planifica Madrid. Its legal spokesperson, Hugo Martínez Abarca, has warned that the Ayuso Executive now has the obligation to "deliver everything" before the appearance of the Minister of Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, scheduled for September 17.

The matter also keeps an investigation open in a Madrid court, where PSOE and Más Madrid have appeared as popular prosecution. Another complaint filed before the Court of Accounts by lawyer Javier Flores demands to determine who ordered the operation and how much public money may have been lost in the purchase and subsequent attempt to resell.

The Contracting Board will open the offers received for the penthouse this Wednesday. Until then, Planifica Madrid keeps secret whether anyone has bid for a property that it bought with public funds, never used, and put back on sale after the operation was exposed.