Las Pedrosas is a town in the province of Zaragoza, in the Cinco Villas region, which barely has 100 inhabitants. Its town council is made up of three councilors, belonging to PP, Podemos and PSOE.
The government team (PP and Podemos) has approved in the last plenary session to invest in foreign debt, mainly Italian, 800,000 euros from the remaining treasury. According to the socialists, the operation was carried out “against the instructions of the Intervention.”
The amount of said debt purchase is 166% higher than the municipal budget, which amounts to 300.00 euros.
Las Pedrosas recorded extraordinary income of more than two million euros from the license for the installation of four wind farms in its municipal area in 2019 and 2021.
The socialist councilor, Víctor Corbacho, has criticized that the contracted debt product and the investment term have not been specified.
He explained that the documentation submitted to a vote in the municipal plenary session “was not valid, so it was not possible to award a specific product, since the contracting date of the products offered had already expired.”
He added that the entity in which it was decided to invest, of the three proposals that there were, “only presented European sovereign debt funds, each of the funds being made up of different percentages of debt from different countries (Spain, Italy, Germany). , but in all cases they include debt from other countries.”
The legal report on treasury surpluses, issued by the City Council’s Intervention, states that “in no case may investments be made abroad, even though these may be intermediated by a financial institution legally recognized in Spain.”
Corbacho has regretted that the result of this decision is that “the public coffers no longer have 800,000 euros available for investments that are necessary in the town, such as the supply networks, the completion of the new water tank or the execution of the pending sports facilities in the park, projects all developed and started, which in this situation will inevitably be delayed and postponed in time.
The mayor, Joaquín Gordún (PP), has indicated that the intention with said investment is for the money to generate some type of revenue and not be devalued.
And, in the face of criticism from the socialists, it has sent the municipal agreement to the Zaragoza Provincial Council so that the legal services can rule on its legality.
The socialist group of Las Pedrosas has also denounced the contracting of a wallet-type card, with a balance of 3,000 euros per year at the disposal of the mayor to cover travel expenses, drinks, invitations and any type of expense he deems appropriate, understanding that is inherent to his position.
The socialists understand that “this card covertly represents a salary of 3,000 euros per year for the mayor, without the need for justification and free from treasury control, as it does not include any receipt of allowances or any other concept.”
And for this reason, they have regretted that “never before in democracy has a mayor or councilor of the municipality, which barely exceeds 100 inhabitants, had any salary allocation, nor free monetary provision for expenses, in any case these being covered after justification of the same and at the discretion of the Intervention”.
