Alcala de Xivert-Alcossebre Council approves a budget of 9,851,187 Euros for 2015
![[Img #38168]](upload/img/periodico/img_38168.jpg)
The Alcala de Xivert-Alcossebre Council approved the budget for 2015, amounting to 9,851,187 Euros, with the PP councillors and the ‘No Adscrita’ councillor, Idurre Lamelas, voting in favour, whilst the three PSOE councillors and the Compromis spokesperson voted against.
The mayor, Francisco Juan Mars, pointed out that this budget “complies strictly with the principles of Budget Stability and the Rules of Expenditure, as well as maintaining the aim of reducing the municipal debt, which we have reduced by a third in the last 10 years”. For Juan Mars, another significant aspect of managing the budget was represented by payments to suppliers “which we have reduced to an average time of 15 days, besides which the measures we have adopted during the last financial year have had no queries about their legality, no agreement has been made with an unfavourable report and only on one occasion has it been necessary to have recourse to an out of court approval of invoices”.
The municipal accounts maintain initiatives like the Employment plans, which initially have a budget of 156,129 Euros. The mayor indicated that “in 2014 this started with the same amount and during the financial year we were able to increase it 167% to an amount of 418,000 Euros, due to using the balance which was achieved thanks to the policies of containing expenditure and optimising the resources to carry out more with less money”. Another of the points which were singled out by the local executive is the increase of 10% in assistance to local groups and the 542,147 Euros which are for investments such as the Accessibility Plan (100,000 Euros), improvements to the Alcala de Xivert Pensioners’ Hall and sheltered accommodation (40,000 Euros), extending public lighting (53,000 Euros), improvements to the Alcossebre sports facilities (30,000 Euros), electronic information boards (50,000 Euros), updating IT (17,000 Euros), municipal installation equipment (37,000 Euros) and asphalting the Cami Vilanova (52,000 Euros) which was financed through the POYS (Works and Services Plan).
PSOE Amendment
At the council meeting on 26th November, the Town’s PSOE Group withdrew the budget amendment which it had presented for discussion in the meeting, besides having defended it in the press and on social networks. The justification for this decision, according to the spokesperson Carlos Miralles, was that it contained errors, and therefore they did not include it for debate.
Concerning the amendment withdrawn by the socialists, Francisco Juan Mars considered that “it was unbelievable and surprising, as well as showing how little was known of the figures for recent years’ budgets which were made available for them by e-mail to the socialist spokesperson, to make their task easier. To say that the budgets were not serious, that the paragraphs were inflated, to criticise the expenditure on employment, to put in doubt the saving achieved, the expenditure on lawyers, to criticise the pedestrianisation of streets and to reject the investment to encourage selective waste disposal, shows tremendous irresponsibility. As was explained to them during the meeting, the practice of control and redeployment of expenditure, taking into account the limitations which councils now have to observe by law concerning expenditure and staff, resulted in a saving of 1,650,000 Euros in 2013 and 1,319,000 Euros in 2014, which has been used to promote employment and social measures. The last three financial years everything has complied with the Budgetary Stability principle, the Rules of Expenditure and the Limit on Debt. We forecast expenditure in a prudent manner, without inflation, which is how we have been able to pay our suppliers, on average, in 15 days, because the council has the necessary liquidity. On the other hand, the expenditure is calculated on a basis of forecasting all possible expenditure, and then during daily working and planning, together with responsible management, we spend as little as possible, thus giving us substantial savings”.
In his speech, the socialist spokesperson, Carlos Miralles, criticised the fact that some sections had not appeared in the budget, such as the concept of indemnity, and described the Employment Plan as a “cut and paste” and asked that the sections should include greater allocation from the start, as they expected to supplement them in the future during the next financial year, and therefore he made the criticism that “it was not considered from the beginning of the year”.
For his part, the Compromis spokesperson, Manel Salvador, justified his rejection of the budget stating that although there may be variations during the financial year “whatever is known should be considered”, such as the indemnity and the Employment Plan “which had been increased during the year. A matter which it is known is going to happen should not be left like this”, and he was sure that the budget was prepared with low forecasts so that it could then be said that there were savings, and therefore he considered that it was “badly prepared”.
The Finance councillor, Desam Pitarch, replied to the opposition that the indemnity was not in the 2015 budget because it will be paid out of the balance remaining from 2014, as the amount had been reserved for this in advance – approved in two meetings previous to this one on the 8th and 9th, so as not to put this charge in the 2015 budget. In this way the Council covered the amount it has to pay for the San Fernando artificial grass football pitch and the judgement in favour of La Baronesa SL, with the first instalment payable in 2015 – which had been paid out of 2014 funds but will become effective on 15th January 2015 – and the following payment will be included in the budget for 2016.
Regarding the Employment Plan, Desam Pitarch explained that “prudently we can only consider what we have available at present, in the expectation that the 2014 budget will be settled. Expenditure such as that on publicity is in response to the desire to promote the Council’s activities, and to give them maximum coverage and through this maximise participation both for residents and the visitors who come to our town, as well as the activities organised by the town’s local clubs and organisations and which we consider should benefit from our support for coverage. But expenditure is always based on the state of the budget, so it would not be wise to calculate lower expenditure”.
Afterwards, the Finance councillor pointed out the importance of including social activities in the budget, with help to improve the Pensioners’ Hall, help for older people, improvements to accessibility, with an increase in these sections of 33.34%. She also indicated that new initiatives are being put in place, such as the Campus Jove for young people of between 12 and 14 years of age, the 22% increase in Education and the health improvements with the acquisition of a defibrillator and a stretcher for the Health Centre in Capicorb.
Francisco Juan Mars, concluded the explanation of the budget saying that “the preparation work, for which we want to thank the municipal technical staff for their efforts, is based on the comparison of previous financial year, adjusted to the legal regulations, the study of contracts currently in force, taking into account the new budget structure and the payment figures, we manage advances of contributions from the Diputación which enable us to make plans in the treasury department to start the year with no problems”.
The Alcala de Xivert-Alcossebre Council approved the budget for 2015, amounting to 9,851,187 Euros, with the PP councillors and the ‘No Adscrita’ councillor, Idurre Lamelas, voting in favour, whilst the three PSOE councillors and the Compromis spokesperson voted against.
The mayor, Francisco Juan Mars, pointed out that this budget “complies strictly with the principles of Budget Stability and the Rules of Expenditure, as well as maintaining the aim of reducing the municipal debt, which we have reduced by a third in the last 10 years”. For Juan Mars, another significant aspect of managing the budget was represented by payments to suppliers “which we have reduced to an average time of 15 days, besides which the measures we have adopted during the last financial year have had no queries about their legality, no agreement has been made with an unfavourable report and only on one occasion has it been necessary to have recourse to an out of court approval of invoices”.
The municipal accounts maintain initiatives like the Employment plans, which initially have a budget of 156,129 Euros. The mayor indicated that “in 2014 this started with the same amount and during the financial year we were able to increase it 167% to an amount of 418,000 Euros, due to using the balance which was achieved thanks to the policies of containing expenditure and optimising the resources to carry out more with less money”. Another of the points which were singled out by the local executive is the increase of 10% in assistance to local groups and the 542,147 Euros which are for investments such as the Accessibility Plan (100,000 Euros), improvements to the Alcala de Xivert Pensioners’ Hall and sheltered accommodation (40,000 Euros), extending public lighting (53,000 Euros), improvements to the Alcossebre sports facilities (30,000 Euros), electronic information boards (50,000 Euros), updating IT (17,000 Euros), municipal installation equipment (37,000 Euros) and asphalting the Cami Vilanova (52,000 Euros) which was financed through the POYS (Works and Services Plan).
PSOE Amendment
At the council meeting on 26th November, the Town’s PSOE Group withdrew the budget amendment which it had presented for discussion in the meeting, besides having defended it in the press and on social networks. The justification for this decision, according to the spokesperson Carlos Miralles, was that it contained errors, and therefore they did not include it for debate.
Concerning the amendment withdrawn by the socialists, Francisco Juan Mars considered that “it was unbelievable and surprising, as well as showing how little was known of the figures for recent years’ budgets which were made available for them by e-mail to the socialist spokesperson, to make their task easier. To say that the budgets were not serious, that the paragraphs were inflated, to criticise the expenditure on employment, to put in doubt the saving achieved, the expenditure on lawyers, to criticise the pedestrianisation of streets and to reject the investment to encourage selective waste disposal, shows tremendous irresponsibility. As was explained to them during the meeting, the practice of control and redeployment of expenditure, taking into account the limitations which councils now have to observe by law concerning expenditure and staff, resulted in a saving of 1,650,000 Euros in 2013 and 1,319,000 Euros in 2014, which has been used to promote employment and social measures. The last three financial years everything has complied with the Budgetary Stability principle, the Rules of Expenditure and the Limit on Debt. We forecast expenditure in a prudent manner, without inflation, which is how we have been able to pay our suppliers, on average, in 15 days, because the council has the necessary liquidity. On the other hand, the expenditure is calculated on a basis of forecasting all possible expenditure, and then during daily working and planning, together with responsible management, we spend as little as possible, thus giving us substantial savings”.
In his speech, the socialist spokesperson, Carlos Miralles, criticised the fact that some sections had not appeared in the budget, such as the concept of indemnity, and described the Employment Plan as a “cut and paste” and asked that the sections should include greater allocation from the start, as they expected to supplement them in the future during the next financial year, and therefore he made the criticism that “it was not considered from the beginning of the year”.
For his part, the Compromis spokesperson, Manel Salvador, justified his rejection of the budget stating that although there may be variations during the financial year “whatever is known should be considered”, such as the indemnity and the Employment Plan “which had been increased during the year. A matter which it is known is going to happen should not be left like this”, and he was sure that the budget was prepared with low forecasts so that it could then be said that there were savings, and therefore he considered that it was “badly prepared”.
The Finance councillor, Desam Pitarch, replied to the opposition that the indemnity was not in the 2015 budget because it will be paid out of the balance remaining from 2014, as the amount had been reserved for this in advance – approved in two meetings previous to this one on the 8th and 9th, so as not to put this charge in the 2015 budget. In this way the Council covered the amount it has to pay for the San Fernando artificial grass football pitch and the judgement in favour of La Baronesa SL, with the first instalment payable in 2015 – which had been paid out of 2014 funds but will become effective on 15th January 2015 – and the following payment will be included in the budget for 2016.
Regarding the Employment Plan, Desam Pitarch explained that “prudently we can only consider what we have available at present, in the expectation that the 2014 budget will be settled. Expenditure such as that on publicity is in response to the desire to promote the Council’s activities, and to give them maximum coverage and through this maximise participation both for residents and the visitors who come to our town, as well as the activities organised by the town’s local clubs and organisations and which we consider should benefit from our support for coverage. But expenditure is always based on the state of the budget, so it would not be wise to calculate lower expenditure”.
Afterwards, the Finance councillor pointed out the importance of including social activities in the budget, with help to improve the Pensioners’ Hall, help for older people, improvements to accessibility, with an increase in these sections of 33.34%. She also indicated that new initiatives are being put in place, such as the Campus Jove for young people of between 12 and 14 years of age, the 22% increase in Education and the health improvements with the acquisition of a defibrillator and a stretcher for the Health Centre in Capicorb.
Francisco Juan Mars, concluded the explanation of the budget saying that “the preparation work, for which we want to thank the municipal technical staff for their efforts, is based on the comparison of previous financial year, adjusted to the legal regulations, the study of contracts currently in force, taking into account the new budget structure and the payment figures, we manage advances of contributions from the Diputación which enable us to make plans in the treasury department to start the year with no problems”.
