At a press conference held this morning, the Finance Councillor of Manilva Town Hall, Juan Carlos Morejón, gave an explanation of the council’s financial situation and the measures he has taken since taking up his post a month ago. With the aim of providing transparency and clarity about the management of the finances, the councillor shared in detail the challenges they face and the actions taken so far.
The Councillor began his address by acknowledging that, although it is early to present explanations, he considers this an appropriate moment to inform residents about the municipality’s economic situation. Since taking up his post as Finance councillor, he has worked tirelessly to analyse the figures and the finances that govern the council, with the aim of providing a clearer and more understandable picture.
One of the crucial issues Morejón addressed was the cash count presented when he joined the governing team, which spoke of a sum of more than 7 million euros in the municipal bank accounts. Although these figures reflected a certain availability, the councillor stressed that these are not real funds available for the Town Hall’s current operations, since approximately 1.5 million euros of that figure corresponds to outstanding invoices that must be dealt with from the previous administration. This has created a complicated financial situation that the new governing team must face.
Regarding the economic situation, the Councillor announced that at the next ordinary council meeting, scheduled for 3 August, several items of interest relating to the financial matters under his responsibility as head of Finance will be addressed. In particular, it will focus on the financial transfers needed to approve and pay invoices that are still pending settlement. In fact, many of these invoices have objections from the auditing department, which has made it difficult to settle them so far. In search of solutions, two specific items will be put to the council meeting to resolve these issues, and budget allocation will be made through the Local Government Board.
As for the poor management found in some projects, the Councillor referred specifically to the pedestrian path and section one of the seafront promenade, whose additional costs were attributed to a lack of foresight in planning. This lack of foresight has caused a significant financial shortfall for the municipality, with an estimated impact of approximately 2 million euros less available for managing and implementing the budget until December.
Amid these challenges, the Councillor expressed his determination to work tirelessly to balance the books and meet the commitments made. However, he warned of the imminent challenge they will face next year, as they will have to deal with an inherited debt of 18 million euros. This debt, inherited from previous administrations, was financed through a bank credit loan with a two-year grace period, which leaves the new governing team in a compromised financial situation.
Morejón also mentioned the budget lines most affected, such as festivities, tourism, culture and cleaning, which have suffered significant funding shortfalls. To address this problem, specific credit transfer items will be put to the council meeting to provide funding for these areas.
Finally, the Councillor thanked the local media for their attendance and expressed confidence that important changes will be made so that they become the leading media outlet for the whole region. He also sent his best wishes for the Santa Ana weekend and congratulated everyone called Ana, especially the woman who runs the local media outlet.
With these statements, the Finance Councillor gave a complete and detailed picture of the economic situation of Manilva Town Hall, showing transparency and commitment in the management of public resources for the benefit of residents, and announced that next year spending will have to be reduced considerably, especially on festivities, in order to put together new budgets more closely tailored to the real needs of each department.
