The irregular bonuses of the City Council of Joan Ribó -according to the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency- they will reach 1.2 million when the current legislature ends in 2023. They have been distributed since 2015 to complement the salary of the 8 part-time councilors of the local corporation. Until 2019 they were charged by councilors of the Government team for more than 772,000 euros, and in this term they will provide almost 396,000 to the opposition. Perhaps this is why none of the 6 beneficiary parties (before Compromís, PSOE and Podemos and now PP, Cs and Vox) They have been brought to justice despite the fact that they violate the ‘Montoro Law’, according to the supervisory body.
This Friday, after the local government board, the vice mayor Sergi Campillo (Compromís) and the councilor for the Treasury, Borja Sanjuan (PSPV-PSOE), stated again that they will not return the money or abide by the Antifraud recommendations “until the next legislature.” The first recognized that “an irregularity” was committed in 2015. The second admitted that the opposition is now charging “more than its share” since 2019. But he considered such a circumstance “a good democratic exercise.” “The complement was put to guarantee its opposition function,” said Campillo.
EL ESPAÑOL consulted the three opposition parties this Friday. All three attribute the responsibility for the bonuses to the government team and confirm that, at least to date, they do not have in mind to bring the matter to justice.
The PP, for its part, insisted on differentiate the bonuses that the Government got in 2015 from those that the opposition now receives since 2019. “We completely agree with Antifraud in what happened during the first legislature. They were manifestly illegal salary supplements, approved without any technical report so that part-time councilors would charge the same as full-time councilors,” they stated.
“But what was done in 2019 was different. The Government of Ribó kept all the councilors with exclusive dedication and left the eight part-time for the opposition, to whom he put a certain salary, this time with the approval of the municipal secretary . We believe that Anti-Fraud is wrong, because they receive 75% of the maximum salary of the City Council, which is the one charged by the mayor, and which are, therefore, legal, “they defended.
Joan Ribó, in the center, with his vice mayors Sandra Gómez and Sergi Campillo. EE
The PP, despite considering the remuneration for the period 2015-2019 as irregular, will not bring them to justice. “Antifraud should do it, which is the one who made the report,” they excuse themselves. Neither will Ciudadanos. “The truth is counted on our vote against“, recalls the orange formation. In effect, all the opposition opposed the retributions to which they are now clinging because” it was imposed that all the partial dedications fell obligatorily on members of the opposition.
When it comes to bonuses, Cs is also lukewarm. “We consider that the Government team must assume all its recommendations in the terms set forth by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency”, they affirm. But they will not take to court the 772,000 euros overcharged by the local government nor the 396,000 that the opposition will enter this legislature.
Vox was the only opposition party that He told this newspaper that he is “studying legality.” of the remuneration reported by Antifraud. But he did not transfer that he is going to take any concrete legal action, at least for the moment.
Of the eight councilors of the opposition who have received the irregular bonus that Antifraud denounces since 2019, four are from the Popular Party. Is about Santiago Ballester, Juan Giner, Julia Climent and Carlos Mundina. Another three are from Citizens: Fernando Giner, the spokesperson for training in the city, Rafael Pardo and Javier Copoví. The eighth is the councilor of Vox Jose Gosálbez.
It does not comply with Law 27/2013
As detailed in his Antifraud document, the rule breached during the first legislature (2015-2019) was Law 27/2013 on Rationalization and Sustainability of the Local Administration (derived from Law 2/2012 on Budgetary Stability, better known as’ Law Montoro ‘). The same, in its articles 1.18 and 1.19, introduced limits to the remuneration regime of the members of the local corporations and limited the number of full-time positions, as recalled by the agency.
But the consistory led by Commitment, who governed the last legislature together with PSPV-PSOE and Valencia in Common -the Valencian brand of Podemos-, looked for a formula to get around it. “Formally it accredited that it did not exceed the limit of 25 councilors with exclusive dedication. But, de facto, its practical effect was that the Valencia City Council paid 31 councilors the same amount in quantitative terms “, according to the supervisory body that directs Joan Llinares.
For Anti-fraud, the bonus system that the Ribó government implemented “violent the will expressed in the norm to comply with the principles of budgetary stability, financial sustainability or efficiency in the use of resources. “The research focused on the amounts received by five councilors of Commitment, three of PSPV-PSOE and two of Valencia in Common. In total, they collected the aforementioned 772,000 euros from the municipal coffers.
The councilors of Compromís were Sergi Campillo (current deputy mayor of the city) Giuseppe Grezzi, Gloria Tello, Pilar Soriano and Consol Castillo. The PSPV-PSOE was perceived by the deputy mayor today Sandra Gomez, Anais Menguzzato (current FGV manager) and Vicent Sarrià (PSOE deputy in Congress at the moment). As for València en Comú, they received it Neus Fábregas and Mary Oliver, who is currently deputy director of the Valencian Housing and Land Entity (EVha) that manages Podemos.
Antifraud calculation on the bonuses received by each councilor. EE
Anti-fraud indicated on the officially named “complement of special responsibility” that “the specific competencies of the deputy mayors in that 2015-2019 legislature that justify the application of the complement were neither motivated, nor detailed, nor have they been accredited.”
It also hurt that the City Council did not accredit “why it was quantified by an additional 25%”, a percentage that, as he warned, “equates the remuneration with the regime of the councilors with exclusive dedication”. The agency also argued that “the deputy mayors they were already paid for the responsibility“.” That responsibility is implicit in the position and, therefore, their remuneration is in a percentage for the salary of the mayor, “he stressed.
In turn, he drew attention to an absurdity generated with this system. “Those deputy mayors could reconcile their public activity with other private activities,” all despite perceiving “de facto“a remuneration” equivalent to 100% “of exclusive dedication. He also recalled Antifraud that the state regulation verbatim says that the maximum limit that will be imposed in the partial dedication regime will be established by the total received “for all remuneration concepts”, so that it is not possible to introduce a complement like the one applied.
The change of 2019
On the other hand, the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency drew attention to the change introduced by the Valencia City Council in the current legislature, 2019-2023, in which it suppressed this complement in view of its irregularity and looked for an alternative formula to keep the bonuses. It consisted in concentrating the bulk of the ediles with exclusive dedication in the political groups that make up the local government.
To raise the salary of those who had part-time dedication – all of them in the opposition – he paid them 93.14% of the salary of the exclusive, when they should really charge 75%, according to Antifraud. The difference in your favor is about 12,400 euros a year.
“This legislature the plenary session approved that the councilors with exclusive dedication will receive an annual amount of 68,171.04 euros, and the members with a partial dedication of 75% will receive a gross annual remuneration of 63,500.22 euros“said the body. Anti-fraud regretted that such a circumstance occurred” without justification on this amount, which represents 93.15% of the remuneration of the councilors with exclusive dedication. “
The entity of Joan Llinares In this regard, he asserted that “there is no proportionality between the amount of the remuneration and the percentage of dedication.” Indeed, 75% of the full-time salary would be 51,128.28 euros gross per year, so that the extra amount they receive up to 63,500.22 euros is a total of 12,371.94 euros gross per year more per councilor. Among the eight, the total amount will rise to the aforementioned 396,000 at the end of the legislature.
“For the members of the corporation 2019-2023 with a partial dedication of 75% a remuneration is being paid that far exceeds 75% of the salaries of full-time councilors“Anti-fraud insisted in this regard. The agency considered that this practice was” altering the criterion of proportionality to the salary of exclusive dedication as it was collected in the other legislatures. “
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Reference-www.elespanol.com