The Mancomunidad de Municipios de la Costa Tropical has just approved its budget for 2016; one-million euros, but which contains no projects.

What is amazing, surprising and undoubtedly shameful is that 80% of that amount goes towards salaries!

For the first time since this organization was set up in 1995 the governing board will receive salaries – bare in mind that just about all of them already receive public salaries elsewhere.

The Chairman, who is also the leader of the Almuñécar branch of the socialists, Sergio García Alabarce, will receive a salary of 29,250 euros. Three other socialist board members, employees of the Albuñol, Ítrabo and Jete Town halls, will receive salaries of between 20,500 and 22,800 euros.

When you total up those four salaries, plus their corresponding Social Security payments, you’re talking about 130,000 euros a year. This amount is equivalent, more or less, to what the previous conservative-lead board spent on salaries for advisory posts; i.e., cushy jobs for the boys. The board members, however, received their salaries from their respective town halls.

The difference in costs, however, is that the new board will also be hiring external advisory services with a slice of the budget of 196,000 euros – doubling the cost of service contracts.

Both parties are now slinging accusations of “y tú más” (you did it too and even more).

The Mancomunidad has long held the fame of being a cushy-job allocation for political parties, unfortunately.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)