Pablo R. Roces Madrid

Madrid

Updated Wednesday, January 31, 2024-00:08

  • Politics The PSOE left more than seven million unpaid in bills in Arganda del Rey before losing the City Council

In the Arganda del Rey City Council,

1,083 electricity bills have emerged in municipal buildings

that the previous municipal government, of the PSOE, left unpaid for a value of 607,883.54 euros. A new amount that the current Executive, who already found himself with more than seven million euros to deal with when he arrived at the City Council in July, will have to face in the coming months.

According to the documentation to which EL MUNDO has had access, these electricity bills,

sent by the regulated marketer Gas&Power, of the Naturgy Group

, begin in January 2021 and extend until the end of 2022, affecting the center, among other municipal agencies. for the elderly of the municipality or the La Poveda Children's House. In fact, sources consulted by this newspaper assure that the company even conveyed to the City Council the possibility that, if non-payment persists, the electricity supply to the properties would be cut off.

Last Friday, the Governing Board of the Arganda City Council approved the extrajudicial recognition, that is, the first step so that these payments can be made soon. The City Council admits "the high sum" that they will have to face and that these amounts will have to be deducted from other items, such as a savings plan derived from the 40% reduction in overtime for officials or the reduction of two million euros in salaries of senior municipal officials.

Last July, as this newspaper reported, after the change of Government in which the

popular

Alberto Escribano replaced the socialist Guillermo Hita as mayor of the town, the new Government team, after a first analysis, found itself with unpaid invoices that amounted to 7.2 million euros, which would ultimately remain at around 6 because a total of 1.3 were returned to suppliers.

There were the garbage contracts signed with FCC or the gas supply.

According to that documentation, the outgoing municipal government

maintained a debt of more than 2.5 million with the FCC company,

in whose shareholders the Koplowitz family or Carlos Slim participate, for the garbage contracts that the City Council awarded in June 2022 for 62 million. of euros for the next decade. The contract represents approximately half a million euros each month and since it began its validity, no payments have been made from the municipal corporation.

Precisely these garbage contracts caused controversy among the residents of Arganda del Rey because the City Council

decided to change the collection system and remove the underground containers

, claiming that they did not comply with current legislation. This modification, according to some of the neighbors and the Popular Municipal Group, then in opposition, would cause bad odors in the streets because it was on the surface.

The current municipal government warns that spending also skyrocketed exponentially in the first half of 2023, just before the municipal elections were held that ended up causing the change of government in the municipality in favor of the PP. Especially, they warn in the City Council, in the Tourism area or in

events such as the Spring Festival, which was celebrated in the month of May, with a disbursement of more than 200,000 euros

to organize concerts in the Plaza de la Constitución by groups such as La Guardia, OBK or Rafa Sánchez, singer of La Unión.

"These excess expenses are going to be limited in any case, the priority will be to deal with essential issues," point out municipal sources, who highlight issues that the City Council has already had to deal with, such as the change of lighting in the public roads for a value greater than 100,000 euros. In fact, in the previous debt there were also

237,255 euros that the City Council had committed to the temporary union of companies in charge of lighting

the municipality and that was not paid either.

The same also happened with the 198,864 euros for lighting for Christmas and local holidays, agreed with another company and whose invoice was returned to the supplier.