Pedro Mancebo Gilabert, councillor and spokesman of the CLR party in the Town Hall of Orihuela, was surprised to hear last week about the PP party´s new savings plan which was presented by David Costa, their Human Resources councillor. According to the plan the PP party will be freezing the salaries of functionaries, politicians and PP exclusive personal consultants. “We will also be keeping a strict control on payments of overtime hours worked by the functionaries”, were the words of David Costa.
Pedro informed us that this so called “savings plan” can only be described as a “milonga”, which translated into plain English means fairy-tale!
“How can the PP party declare now a saving this year of approximately €1.3 million –from €26.8 million spent last year 2009 to €25.5 million this year 2010– when the truth and reality is that the Council has actually less money available to budget with than last year” exclaimed Pedro, hence the reduction of the funds available for salaries. This does not mean a saving! A real saving would have been budgeting €26 million and then spending effectively €25 million!! That would have mean a true cut of €1 million.
The CLR party is also very eager to learn when the governing party will actually present the budget for this year, which is long overdue and should have been presented in January 2010, and confirm whether there will be a cut in the expenses and salaries. In my opinion said Pedro Mancebo “the delay in presenting the annual budget means nothing else but to hide from the citizens and tax payers in Orihuela where, how and who within the PP is spending the citizen’s money”.
Does Mr. Costa really believe that the residents of Orihuela and Orihuela-Costa will swallow this “savings plan” asked Pedro. The grand total of €1.2 million was spent last year on just the salaries for the 14 PP councillors and approximately 20 personal advisors who work for the PP party. It has also come to our attention that some ex-councillors and people who are not even employed by the Town Hall are being provided with mobile telephones, all of which are being paid for by tax payers´ money – our money.
Just as an example of what the PP governing party understands as “saving”, the CLR party was astonished to find out recently that €15,500 was spent by the PP party for the rental (yes, rental not purchased!) of four PVC white tables, 24 PVC chairs, 17 stools, one fridge and two coat stands for the duration of the FITUR exhibition which was held at the beginning of the year (20th to 24th January). To add insult to injury these items were rented from a company in Altea. If the PP is going to be so “generous” said Pedro they could have at least given the business to a home based company in Orihuela or Orihuela Costa.
The CLR spokesman informed us also regarding a piece of land which the governing party has rented to hold local fairs. The extortionate sum of €300,000.00 was recently spent on asphalting the piece of land. Pedro Mancebo said “how on earth can you spend this amount asphalting a piece of land that does not even belong to the Town Hall, which is leased, and furthermore is qualified as “rustic land” and therefore cannot be asphalted, questioned Pedro.
We know that a fashion designer also received a subvention from the Town Hall (about €20,000.00) to open an atelier where young up and coming fashion designers could learn the trade. The cheque has long been cashed but we are still waiting for the atelier to open its door, reported Pedro. Maybe the fact that he is the designer of the beautiful dresses worn by the Mayoress, Monica Lorente, influenced the decision to pay this subvention?
Pedro Mancebo concluded “it really baffles me how the PP party can present a false savings plan when so much public money is being wasted, and I mean wasted not invested. It is shocking that the residents of Orihuela and Orihuela-Costa´s tax contributions have willingly been taken and stashed away into the PP party´s “pot” and the governing party members can just put their hand in and spend the money how they feel fit. Furthermore, this situation continues until a proper budget is approved by the Council and we are still sat tight waiting for this to be presented”.

View full post on theleader.info