Jimena Council approves request for €1.7 million loan

The Extraordinary Plenary Session of Jimena Council held last week (and announced here) approved a financial operation for a €1,700.000 short term loan "to be returned in 12 months," according to a press release. The loan is to be negotiated with three financial entities, says the statement, and "is larger than usual because of the need to pay staff the extra annual bonus (aguinaldo or paga extra, of which there are two per year by law in Spain) and because the Council owes Social Security and Income Tax payments for six months, plus urgent payment to suppliers, all of which "are motivated by the Council's precarious financial situation." Mayor Pascual Collado>

says that this is the only short- or long-term credit operation that is "open at present and it is not above 30% of the municipal budget." Collado added that this type of financing "has become usual over the last few years."

The two opposition groups on the Council, PP and PA, voted against the motion.

Guillermo Ruiz, spokesman for the PP, said that the plan was "against what was wanted with the Plan de Saneamiento Financiero ('financial clean-up')."

Similar terms were used by Juan Antonio Vázquez, spokesman for PA, who additionally requested the names of the suppliers to be paid, whom he called 'VIPs' and whom the Council wanted to pay with the credit.