Salobreña spends €5.1 million of municipal savings despite its comptroller's warning about a possible repayment of European funds

The City Council of Salobreña approved three budget amendments totalling €5,185,075.28 on 14 August, at an extraordinary and urgent plenary session, despite the fact that the municipal comptroller's report warned that two of them, taken together, would cause a breach of budgetary stability and of the spending rule, obliging the council to draw up an economic-financial plan.

That same report contained a second warning, of a different nature. The comptroller asked that part of the treasury reserves be set aside given the possibility of having to repay funds from the Tourist Destination Sustainability Plan, the programme financed with European money. The paragraph was read aloud during the session by the People's Party (PP) spokesperson, Juan de Dios Márquez Moya: «In view of the principle of prudence and given the uncertainty existing regarding the possible existence of reimbursement related to the Tourist Destination Sustainability Plan programme, the corresponding part of the treasury reserves for general expenses must be safeguarded so that, if necessary, the repayment of those funds can be addressed».

The three files went through without a single vote against. PP, Vox and PMÁS abstained on the two large ones.

«You put every possible obstacle in our way to scrutinise this»

The documentation from the information committee reached the political groups on Wednesday at midday. The plenary session was held on Friday morning. Forty-eight hours to review three files which, according to Márquez Moya, contain the largest investment chapter he has seen in his six years as a councillor.

Added to that was a circumstance the PP spokesperson himself placed on the record when stating his position on the urgency: the municipal comptroller was on holiday and could not advise the groups on the items about to be voted on. On that basis, the PP abstained on the declaration of urgency itself, although it accepted the substance of the matter: «we agree that suppliers should be paid as soon as possible».

Vox councillor Manuel Jorge Martín Montero went further and took the complaint into the realm of procedure. He spoke of a council growing accustomed to holding «purely procedural plenary sessions» and described the role to which, in his view, the opposition is reduced: «we come here like pillars of salt». He closed with a warning aimed at the mayor: «form often nullifies procedure».

PMÁS councillor Pedro Ruiz de la Rica joined the protest over the timing and added a criticism of the content of the files. He questioned line items labelled «miscellaneous expenses» and an allocation of €40,000 under the heading of work carried out by another company, without specifying which. «We cannot scrutinise things this way», he concluded.

Asphalt, cobblestones and a roofed stand

The first two files, of €3,294,971.53 and €1,691,916.70, are financed from the treasury reserves and account for the bulk of the investment the mayor detailed in the session: an asphalting plan worth €903,000, replacement of the turf and irrigation system at the football ground for €200,000, a cobblestone paving plan worth €563,750 covering Muralla Street in the old town, Marcelino Camacho in La Caleta and Granada Street in Lobres, the redevelopment of the Juan Ramón Jiménez area for €635,496, the refurbishment of the old town for €300,000 and the roofing of the football ground's stand for a further €300,000.

Alongside the investments comes a long list of current expenditure set out by the councillor for the economy and finance, Mª Carmen Rodríguez Callejón: outstanding subsidies to the Martín Recuerda Foundation, to Granada Down and to the music band, air conditioning for council premises, fire extinguishers, lift repairs, furniture and computer equipment to open the museum, repairs to schools, street lighting, the cemetery, parks and gardens. On the items the opposition flagged as opaque, Rodríguez Callejón replied that the wording is imposed by budgetary coding itself and that procurement is public: «it is not that any company is being disguised or anything of the sort».

The third file, of €198,187.05, is earmarked for extraordinary bonuses —overtime payments to municipal staff— and is not financed from reserves but by cancelling credit in other budget lines. It was the PP that asked for it to be voted on separately: the party was abstaining on the five million because of the doubts raised in the report, but voted in favour of the overtime. The mayor accepted the split. That item was approved with Vox abstaining.

Nine million in reserve, a budget in deficit

The substantive debate came in the second round of speeches, and there the contradiction running through the whole session became visible.

Márquez Moya added up the first two amendments —€4,986,888.23— and set the figure against the council's general treasury reserves, some €9,333,000. His conclusion, based on the report: the combined operation causes a breach of budgetary stability, a breach of the spending rule and the obligation to approve an economic-financial plan.

The mayor, the Socialist Pedro Javier Ortega Prados, disputed part of that. He argued that the portion corresponding to the budget surplus «does not affect the spending rule and does not oblige us to have an economic-financial plan either», and specified that €3.26 million of that money had to be spent as a matter of legal obligation under a decree-law approved in June, so the council's real room for decision-making was reduced to €1.6 million.

He then put the political argument without wrapping it up: «the ordinary citizen cannot understand that we have 9 million, 11 million or 14 million in reserves, which is like savings, and that their investments are not carried out». He immediately went on to acknowledge what underpins the entire operation: the municipal budget runs a deficit «of more than one million euros», and the only alternative to drawing on savings would be to raise charges or taxes.

On the comptroller's warning, Ortega separated the roles. Technical staff draft their reports in accordance with the law and with the prudence expected of them; the government decides. The finance councillor added the precedent: in 2023, when they took office, municipal technical staff themselves advised raising property tax in the face of a structural deficit. It was not raised.

Fifteen days to lodge objections

The three agreements are provisional. The procedure opens a fifteen-day window for the files to be examined and objections lodged. If none are submitted, they become final automatically, without a further vote by the council.