Where has your money gone?

Bedar’s accounts are anything but transparent.  When a new opposition councillor enters the town hall and asks to see the accounts, he is first fobbed off with a half-page budget of estimated town hall income and expenditures for the year.  Both income and expenditures are divided into seven broad categories with no further detail.  If the councillor continues to press, he eventually gets a 50+ page document, again of estimated income and expenditures divided into finer categories where it is possible to see, for example, that the town hall budgeted 4500 euros for 2010 in pharmaceutical products presumably for town hall personnel. Eventually, during the plenary meetings, the councillor is presented with a previous year’s closing accounts – again divided into the seven broad categories – and expected to approve them without ever seeing the detail of actual expenditures for services, goods or projects. 

By law, there should be an Accounts Information Committee which meets regularly and through which the Opposition and residents can control town hall expenditures.  However, in small towns, setting this committee up remains at the discretion of the mayor.  The previous Levante Sostenible (LSOS) councillor continually demanded that this committee be set up to operate on a continuous basis in Bedar but was refused.  The only time the committee met was a month after the 2007 elections to rubber stamp expenditure approvals when it was too late for the Opposition to query anything.  Similarly another 96,661.03 euros in expenditures without explanation was approved in the plenary of March 13, 2008.  In fact, we have been told by the mayor of a nearby town that no opposition councillor in Spain is ever allowed to see the municipal accounts. 

The figures and project descriptions given below are therefore taken from primarily public sources.  Some come from interviews given by the mayor himself which appear in newspapers such as Nuevo Levante. This is the PR mouthpiece of the area’s mayors where they publicise works being carried out in each town and sometimes mention the budgets involved and/or subsidies awarded.  Some come from official billboards dotted around the municipality which accompany various projects and give project details, the contract amount and who it was awarded to, and the source of the subsidy.  Some were items in a plenary session’s agenda which required approval in order to be paid out. 

The purpose of this document is to give as much information as we have been able to gather along with our appraisal of the expenditure involved.  We also include the location of the expenditure.   Readers can judge for themselves whether the money has been wisely or fairly spent, and whether unfinished projects are worth completing.

First and foremost, in 2008 the Environment Ministry spent over 581,000 euros to build the Tortoise House for which the town hall contributed a plot of over 17,000 sqm.  There are still no tortoises nor any plan to acquire them.

The subsidy received for the construction of official low-cost housing (VPO) near the municipal pool stands at 270,000 euros although so far nothing has been built.  The initial site for the VPO was in the town hall’s share of the land destined for the development of a new urbanisation in La Meseta.  Several months after making this approval, the town hall abruptly decided to use the original site for a school (strange since there are already few children for the existing Bedar school) and to purchase other land for the VPO.  The chosen site, in front of a steep slope next to the municipal pool, measures 1502 sqm and was purchased for 456,627.22 euros – a very expensive 304 euros/sqm – from a company known as Mirador de Bedar, S.L.  This company appears to have very good relations with the town hall and is also the developer of a 50 hectare urbanisation in El Curato which was approved during the plenary of March 13, 2008.

It is evident that when high prices are paid for land, it depends on who the seller is.  For the municipal parking lot next to the cemetery (where half the land already belonged to the town hall), the other half was purchased for four times more per square metre than the land where the new cemetery is located.  The plots are similar in size and location, so why the huge difference in price?

In an article appearing in the April 2009 issue of Noticias del Levante y Cuenca del Almanzora, the mayor announced the establishment of two employment workshops for tourist development and hard landscaping, reportedly involving central government subsidies of 161,000 and 101,000 euros respectively.  Subsequently the town hall ended up spending substantial additional amounts to cover salaries and social security payments for the 16 workshop participants.  The mayor claimed the money was to be used to turn Bedar into an ecotourist location.  Some of the projects cited were street repairs in the town nucleus, renovating the old school in Serena for use as a mining museum, new sidewalks and gardens for Los Giles, as well as renovating a building in Albarico for use as a rural hostel. 

Today there is little to show for the expenditures.  Street repairs in the town nucleus were often unnecessary and residents are complaining of drainage problems caused by poor construction.  A single private company is benefiting to date from the work on the Mine Walk which remains unsafe in several places.  A further 60,000 euro subsidy has now been received to set up a mining museum and an external company without prior experience in this sector has been chosen to do this work while local sources with substantial relevant experience have been ignored. 

The same article states that Bedar was one of six towns in the area chosen to “make a study in energy optimisation with the goal of creating savings”.  The six towns received a subsidy of 114,681.50 euros.  The budgeted amount for electricity expenditure in 2010 is 6500 euros, meaning that Bedar’s share of this subsidy could probably pay for at least two years’ worth of consumption.  What a strange subsidy and of course there has been no follow-up on the so-called study itself. 

Roadworks between the main road to Bedar and the turn-off to Serena have employed metal barriers – which are being removed in other parts of Spain as unsafe – and curbing that could create accidents for both cars and motorcyclists.  Total bill: 24,000 euros. 

Municipal swimming pool: Two years ago it was closed for the entire summer due to leaks which were subsequently repaired by the Diputacion of Almeria for a reported 30,000 euros. 

Lighting for Bedar streets: The company which was awarded the tender clearly cut costs in their work.  Between the lamp posts, the corrugated tubing is sometimes visible and the ditch where the tubing is laid isn’t deep enough nor is there the required concrete bedding.  Some of the lamp posts are improperly anchored and could fall.  Some were installed on private property without acquiring advance permission from the owners.  Cost: approx. 50,000 euros.

Lighting and sidewalk in Serena: Five lampposts were erected in a short stretch of Serena where one or two would have been more than sufficient.  Cost, including sidewalk paving: 42,000 euros.

Third Age Centre: According to the town hall, the adaptation and fitting out of the former teacher’s house as a social centre for the elderly has been finalised at a total cost of 25,115.28 euros.  We have so far been unable to determine if it is open. 

Water Deposit in Los Pinos: A few years back, residents proposed the best site for its location.  Despite their advice, the engineers chose a position at a lower altitude meaning that when demand is high, water pressure is insufficient and water supply does not reach many houses.

Water Deposit for supply to El Albarico: The well technicians marked the spot for a well and claimed there was a large quantity of good quality water.  Several residents ceded land.  A sounding was made; the housing for the well was built; tubing and electrics were installed.  After the well was finished, what a surprise to discover that there was little water and it was of poor quality.  Now a purifier needs to be built before it can be used.

The football grounds remain deteriorated and unused.  As there is no maintenance, that’s another investment of 38,000 euros (30,000 from the Junta de Andalucia and 8,000 from the town hall) thrown away.  Does Bedar even have a football team?

Investment in cleaning machinery, including a sweeper and a truck.  The truck doesn’t have a current ITV nor does it have a matriculation.  The land where the machinery is kept (in front of the municipal swimming pool) reportedly cost 60,000 euros.

Cost of last Andalusi Festival: 11,932.07 euros.  Tourists are supposed to come and spend money in the town, not the other way around.