How long could you get away with not paying your electricity bill before it is cut off – two months, six? Well, the Town Hall of Albuñol hasn’t paid theirs in six years! The electricity company is now talking about cutting off the service
No, things are not going too well for conservative mayor, Juan María Rivas, who is running around in decreasing circles, trying to plug holes. To make matters worse, the municipality has recently lost a grant for 600,000 euros to restore its castle in La Rábita, thanks to an embargo.
The ‘snaffled’ grant came from the 1% cultural grant that the State gives to municipalities that have lost land to the construction of motorways, etc. The workers and machinery were poised, panting, to begin work on the castle when the Mayor received a joyful note to say that the funds had evaporated in the direction of Seguridad Social, to whom the town owes 1,928,000 euros. Who hasn’t had the pleasure of seeing their tax returns disappearing in the same direction?
Needless to say, the Mayor, the construction workers and the poised machinery were all disappointed by the news. The Mayor went on record as saying, “It’s just not cricket” (The Spanish equivalent, of course.)
But this little change of euro ownership might bring with it a few headaches, as well as a frustrated castle; you see, The Ministerio de Fomento, from whom the grant originated, will eventually want to know why the castle still looks as if Genghis Khan had thrown a stag night in it and where are the funds? If a municipality cannot justify that the funds have been spent on what they were intended, then they are obliged to hand them back.
But it would be no good explaining to the Central Government’s ‘left hand’ that its own ‘right hand’ had snatched the money away, because Seguridad Social and El Ministerio de Fomento don’t send each other Christmas cards… not even poisoned ones.
No, the result could well be that Albuñol will have to dig deep for the 600,000 euros and hand them over.
But all is not lost – just misplaced – because the President of the Diputación de Granada, Sebastián Pérez, a fellow PP member, said that he will try to recuperate the 600,000 euros from the insatiable and unforgiving Seguridad Social, which means that an official appeal has been submitted.
Those of you who were expecting a happy, or at least, less ‘wrist-slashing’ ending to the article on the tribulations of Albuñol will be disappointed. After all, this is the town, Ladies and Gentlemen, where the Local Police have permanently parked up their patrol cars to save petrol. The Town Hall still owes its workers their February salaries…
Which brings us back to the subject of the first paragraph of this article: unpaid electricity bills. Five of the six outstanding years of unpaid electricity bills corresponds to the previous administration; i.e., the Mayor found that he had won more than just the elections when he parked his joyful buttocks behind the Mayor’s Desk.
The money owing is actually to two separate companies; Bermejales is owed 242,000 euros (2006 to 2009) whilst CHC (2009 onwards) is owed 355,000 euros. Therefore, the electricity companies are owed the combined amount of nearly 600,000 euros… Oh look, it’s that number again!
Even if the Town Hall did manage to scrape up that amount, Seguridad Social would probably swoop down, like an avenging and gluttonous buzzard, and flap off, triumphantly, with it…, bless them. But try explaining that to the electricity companies, who have already announced that they will be cutting off the electricity supply for the town’s schools, municipal market and administrative offices in the near future.
The Mayor is defiant – as well as broke – and has announced, “If they come to cut off the electricity without a judicial order, they will find that the Policia Local will stop them!,” which sounds reassuring, but the police haven’t been paid and will have to arrive, breathlessly, on roller skates to get there in time.
No, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Rivas is probably asking himself what the hell had led him to run for the Mayor’s office…
(Albuñol, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)