This article is neither about Eliot Ness nor a Hindu caste, but about the Almuñécar town hall, and the title reflects the words chosen by the Mayor’s office to describe certain tradesmen and contractors that allegedly had no problem getting paid for their services under the ex-Mayor, Juan Carlos Benavides, whilst others were far from that ‘fortunate.’
After finally being able to close the municipal accounts, following the previous mayor’s apparent inability to do so for the four years of his administration, the Town Council has found that the municipal debt rose by 16 million euros during that period. The Mayor, Trinidad Herrera, also discovered the existence of about ten companies, who after presenting their bills – collectively adding up to several million euros – were able to receive payment with surprising alacrity.
This inability to close the previous years’ accounts has meant that until about a month ago, monthly payments from the Central Government to the Town Hall were being withheld, pending the finalization of the municipal accounts.
The municipal councillor in charge of the Economia y Hacienda, Sr. Laborda, considers it ‘lamentable’ that the Benavides’ administration was not able to do in four years what the present administration had managed to do in nine months: close the annual municipal accounts.
The said councillor suggests that the ‘laxity’ on the part of the Benavides’ administration was really a scheme to keep the knowledge of just how much the town was in debt from public.
The outcome of the revision of the economical state of the municipal coffers reveals that the Town Hall owes almost 46 million euros – 45,813,913.16, to be precise.
“We have studied the billing for the last four years and found that of the 21,419,100 euros owing to the private sector, ten private companies, ranging from publicity firms (don’t look at us!) to construction companies; from agricultural entities to heavy machinery hire, have been paid 15,374,848 euros between them – that’s 15m of the 21m spent on private contractors,” explained the councillor.
This means that the said ‘Chosen Ten’ (in the words of the Town Hall) have worked almost exclusively for the Town Hall and have had no problem getting paid, whilst the rest have been saddled with unpaid bills.
In the opinion of the said councillor, “This sunk the economy of the Town Hall, as well as that of the Almuñécar business sector, during the years under ex-Mayor Juan Carlos Benadvides.”
The ‘Chosen Ten’ have virtually no outstanding monies owed to them by the Town Hall. This means that of the 21 million spent by the Town Hall, 41% has already been paid over to the ten companies
“They are Benavides’ Untouchables, his pampered disciples, his chosen ones; those that receive their money on time whilst hundreds of other service providers form a queue stretching back years to get paid for work long carried out,” says, Councillor Laborda.
He finished by observing, “it’s strange that in these times of crisis, where cutting back is the order of the day, the debt run up by Benavides from 2006 to 2010 represents 60.26% of the municipal debt, meaning that in that timescale the Town Hall had pushed itself 16,027,405 euros further into debt.”
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia