Simon Wade
A NATIONWIDE survey of fiscal transparency and compliance among nearly 500 Spanish town halls listed Rojales in 479th place.
The municipality is largely made up the popular expat town of Ciudad Quesada, with arguably the highest concentration of British expats in the country.
Some 162 different ‘indicators’ were measured and assessed, relating to information about the mayor and staff, organisational accountability and general transparency.
Rojales City Council only satisfied SEVEN of the requirements, scoring positively for the availability of minutes from meetings and the fact that the council website is translated into English.
However, some of the 155 missing elements were: –
- Past career history of the mayor and his councillors
- Income received by major public officials including the mayor
- Travel expenses incurred by the mayor and other public officials
- The town hall staff selection process
- The number or value of vehicles owned or leased by council staff
- Annual budgets, accounts, reports and audits
- Information about contracting and subcontracting procedures
- Real estate agents owned or connected to the council
- The amount of current and historical municipal debt
- Overall council spending per resident
- A municipality Code of Ethics
- The policy for disposal of public documents and records
The missing information resulted in a lowly score of 4% for the council, with only ten other municipalities in all of Spain faring worse.
Other town halls in Costa Blanca compared poorly, including Pilar de la Horadada (437th with 11.73%) and Guardamar del Segura (402nd with 16.67%).
Sitting atop the pile of 491 town halls are Pozoblanco (Cordoba) and the Costa del Sol tourist town of Fuengirola.
Both ayuntamientos score 150 out of the 162 indicators, giving a 92% score for each administration.
Alhama de Murcia comes a respectable 11th in the table, satisfying 141 indices, giving an 87% score.
Dyntra.org, who recently published the results, claim the table is based on public data managed by a “broad and representative community of experts involved in the measurement and analysis of public bodies.”
The full table of transparency rankings for 491 Spanish town halls can be seen by clicking here.
The results and detailed breakdown for Rojales in particular can be seen by clicking here.
The Olive Press has requested a reply from Rojales Town Hall, and will be published when recieved.
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