OPINION | Podemos Xàbia
Thiviers Park, the municipal swimming pool, and the infamous wipes on the coast are all topics that interest the public to varying degrees. In comparison, the annual municipal budget seems like a dull, dry affair, just numbers. However, that budget is the crux of the matter for the issues mentioned above and for everything else that affects Xàbia.
We could say there are two sides to this coin: before the year begins, the town council approves the budget for the coming year, a forecast of the income it will receive and how it will be spent. The second side is the budget execution, which can be reviewed at the end of the year. We look at what the forecast was (of income and expenses), how much money was actually received, and how it was spent. This is something that should concern us all, since it's our money (because it's the taxes we all pay, even if it comes from the European Union, the Generalitat, etc.; it's the money of all the citizens of Xàbia), and it's natural to want to know what has been done with our money.
And that's where the problems begin: How many of us actually understand this summary of the 2024 budget execution that's on the website of the Town Hall?
To 5% of the readers of this article?
There's a shortfall of almost 17 million euros, for example, in unused investments. 17 million! Why? How can that be explained? Or why is there an 894% shortfall in asset income?
En We can Xàbia We have been trying to get answers to these questions since June of last year. Initially, we were referred to the information published by the Ministry of Finance; later, after contacting the councilwoman... Teresa LegayThis helped us find some information on the city council's website. However, not all the data we requested through the transparency portal is available there, and after asking the councilwoman some questions (at the beginning of last December), we have not yet received a response.
The dates are already getting too late to conduct a meaningful analysis of the 2024 fiscal year, and therefore we want to report some aspects that, in our opinion, should be improved in future budget years. We also reiterate our demand for compliance with the commitment signed by Podem Xàbia and the Mayor to provide information on budget execution so that citizens know how their money has been spent; a firm commitment once Podem Xàbia enters government.
For example, we found no information on multi-year projects, co-financed activities, or the money in the accounts at the beginning and end of the year.
As we have not yet received answers to the questions we submitted in writing in December, we repeat them here in the hope of obtaining a response and that the people of Xàbia can learn through the press what was done (or why it wasn't done) with their money:
INCOME:
1. Why is there an excess of revenue between collected rights and forecasts in the current transfers and fees chapters? We are talking about more than €3,1 million.
2. Why is the amount collected in the indirect taxes section double the final forecast? What revenues caused this increase?
3. Similar to question 2, for the case of property income; here with an increase of 894%.
4. What explains the low execution of the capital transfers chapter, in relation to the final forecasts?
BILLS:
5. How can the execution rate of less than 30% in the investment chapter be explained? In this case, €16,5 million has not been spent.
6. And in Chapter II, where €23,3M of €28,8M has been spent? Here the spending is higher, but it is still surprising that €5,5M remains idle.
LIQUIDATION DECREE:
7. (Section 2) Accumulate and give the total per year of debtors from previous years, which amount to a total of €9,7M. Possibility of defaults?
8. (Section III) Main projects/actions that have caused the excess of affected funding of €6,2M and what stage of execution are they in individually?
9. Treasury situation as of January 1, 2024 and January 1, 2025
10. Finally, reviewing the settlement shows a surplus of €3M; what will this amount be used for?
None of these questions have been answered, but intuition leads us to draw some conclusions:
The excess revenue in the fees chapter is mainly based on the collection of building permits; obviously, none for social housing.
The low rate of investment spending confirms the City Council's negligence in achieving a level of assets appropriate to Xàbia's needs. We know that procurement processes are costly (in time and resources) to complete; however, the Public Procurement Law, aware of these facts, provides mechanisms to prevent resources from going to waste (advance processing, multi-year contracts, etc.).
Finally, a transparent administration that is interested in its citizens participating in public policies should publish and explain implementation data, action plans, and reports that evaluate the results of those actions, and not just comply with the law by publishing a screenshot of how the budget has been executed.
As we have said before, when Podem Xàbia comes to power we are committed to doing exactly this.
When we can, they say, "We'll get into government" 😂😂😂😂
But do you still have hope?
And they are waking up now, with years of works like the ones they mention and more that were left half-finished thanks to that great manager that was Chulvi, who only left fires complete (and very complete, some like the landfill lasted for months).
How shameful. Can we be any more shameful? It's probably the only thing we can do; tomorrow we'll find a way.