The new Councillor for Social Welfare in the Almuñécar Town Hall has accused the previous administration under Juan Carlos Benavides of funneling grant money away from its intended use.

Put another way, Councillor Maria de Carmen Reinoso claims that whereas Almuñécar had been receiving a grant from the Junta to be used to pay home-help workers at 13 euros an hour, the previous administration only handed over 10.09 euros per hour, during 2009 , meaning that a total of 75,000 euros were spirited away from social services for other purposes.

Readers might remember that the company providing home help in Almuñécar was Adhara and that this company went bust when the Town Hall refused to hand over the money that it had received from the Junta expressly for this service. The previous administration then decided to provide the home-help service itself, but in an arguably inefficient and inadequate form.

It is a long and sorry tale that would require a separate article and far too involved to go into here, but the end result was that many aged and infirm residents of Almuñécar reportedly went without attendance during weekends and public holidays – in the case of bank-holiday weekends, this meant several days without any home help.

Getting back to the discrepancy between funds received and funds handed over, in 2009 the Town Hall handed over 89,000 euros to Adhara to pay the employees for their hours worked, but at the same time, retained 75,000 euros, which apparently were spent in other departments within the Town Hall.

It’s not a question of the funds going missing, or ending up in somebody’s pocket, but that if the town received this money to provide a social service for those that cannot look after themselves because of age or sickness, then all of it should have been used for that purpose, either directly as salary or invested in equipment etc.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)