Soliveres: “The lack of foresight was the fault of the Botànic, which spent in one year the money from the Employment Plans until 2027”

The Human Resources Councillor of Benidorm Town Hall, Ana Soliveres, has strongly rejected the criticisms made by the socialist group in a press release about an alleged lack of foresight in labour matters that has led to resorting to the labourers and officials pool of the neighbouring municipality of Alfaz del Pi. “It is just the opposite. Precisely what we have done is to incorporate the necessary personnel in the shortest possible time as a consequence of the poor planning, management and foresight of the Botànic government” she pointed out.

Thus, the councillor has explained that the problem lies in the fact that the Botànic made an initial forecast for the employment programmes until the year 2027 “and they spent all the money in the first year”. The proof is, she said, that “just like last year, this year we asked for the same amount of subsidy for the hiring of workers, 228,000 euros, and they have only been able to authorise 66,000”. Ana Soliveres has been even more precise when indicating that for the Empuju 2024 programme, “we asked Labora to be able to hire 16 workers and the answer they gave us was that we could only hire five because there was no more money”.

After becoming aware of this situation, the City Council “the first thing it has done is guarantee the provision of services” by providing the positions with a legally constituted employment pool by an administration with which the City Council can reach an agreement, as stated in Law 40/2016 on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector and in Royal Decree 5/2015. “It is a usual, ordinary and legal practice between local administrations that allows staff to be incorporated into jobs in the shortest possible time” Soliveres stressed.

She insisted that Benidorm City Council has transferred staff from its pools to other councils on previous occasions. Specifically, so far this year, personnel from the technical engineering pools have been transferred to La Vila Joiosa, social workers to Finestrat, Social Welfare administrators to Altea and Local Police officers to Torrevieja and Petrer. Currently, the transfer of a piano conservatory teacher pool to the Teulada-Moraira City Council is being processed.

The head of Human Resources wanted to emphasize that “we have acted with the same foresight as last year, but we have found that the previous government of the Generalitat had spent all the money allocated to employment plans in the first year, leaving their execution compromised for those who came after.”

Soliveres has been adamant in stating that “we are not going to allow the PSOE of Benidorm to try to give us any lessons in Human Resources when they have been the ones who have been the protagonists of the greatest waste that this City Council has suffered and which is estimated at 4.5 million euros. A case that is still in court and which has several people linked to the PSOE of Benidorm accused”.

“The PSOE, as always, seems to be better off hindering the functioning of the city” continued Soliveres, who took the opportunity to “thank the good disposition and collaboration of the Alfaz del Pi City Council, of the same political colour as Mrs Escoda”. “We do not look at political colours when it comes to managing the human resources of the municipality because we think of the citizens” he concluded.