King Felipe of Spain is to have his spending monitored by the government as part of a reform of the royal household to re-establish public trust in an institution dogged by scandal.
The government will oversee the crown’s accounts through the Court of Auditors, which monitors all public bodies. Previously the royal household had voluntarily offered its assets for scrutiny each year but the government was unable to order it to open its books to investigate claims of wrongdoing.
Senior figures in the household will have to declare their personal assets each year to bring it into line with other public institutions, Félix Bolaños, minister of the presidency, said. Any contracting of services by the household would be made public from now on, he said.
The changes form part of a decree approved by the government today and on which it has been working on with Felipe for several years. The structural and functional changes follow the king’s decision on Monday to make public details of his personal fortune. Felipe’s €2.6 million portfolio consists mainly of cash, plus just over €300,000 in art, antiques and jewellery. He amassed his fortune mainly through a yearly stipend paid by the state that has totalled €4.3 million over 25 years.
The crown has tumbled in popularity because of the indiscretions of Felipe’s father and predecessor, Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014 after an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana when Spaniards were enduring a financial crisis. His reputation has deteriorated further amid revelations of questionable payments from Middle Eastern sheikhs.
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Juan Carlos has spent nearly two years in exile in Abu Dhabi as officials investigated allegations of influence peddling from a $100 million payment from the Saudi government and other alleged deals. The path to a return home has been opened after Spain and Switzerland dropped cases against him for lack of evidence and because of the sovereign immunity he enjoyed, but the public jury is still out and Felipe is doing everything he can to repair the damaged relationship with his people.
Felipe has not shirked from making difficult decisions. He stripped his sister, Cristina, of her title as Duchess of Palma de Mallorca after she was tried, and later acquitted, of fraudulently obtaining millions of euros of public money through a company she owned. He also disinherited himself after the press revealed details of his father’s financial scandals.
