The Andalusian Government has concluded the expansion of the number of provincial delegates of the ministries. Although the Executive of the PP and Ciudadanos began its journey with seven of these senior officials per province, with the reform approved this Tuesday it already has up to 11, which adds up to 24 more than the last government of the socialist Susana Diaz.
The Government of the Board maintains that it has “reordered” the representation to “gain efficiency”, but it is also true that, expansion after expansion – it has carried out two since 2019 -, it has ended up having more delegates in each province than the number of ministries, and it is that the one of Agriculture and Environment has two and the vice-president Juan Marin, with another pair. The heads of Economy and Employment, Rogelio Velasco and Rocio Blanco, share, however, the same delegate.
The PP has always been very critical of the proliferation of representatives that the socialist governments had in the provinces, but it has ended up having more than its predecessors. The government that he named the least was that of Jose Antonio Grinan in 2012, which only had five, after he merged ministries to deal with the economic crisis of those years and which resulted in large cuts in public budgets. Susana Diaz came to have eight, Juanma Moreno premiered with seven, but has finally deployed up to 11.
The Government maintains that the expansion will be carried out “at zero cost” because the new appointments will be made among the staff of civil servants, but the delegates have high-ranking status on the Board. They usually have a secretary, advisor and driver, and even some of the current ones are receiving monthly housing rental aid for residing in a municipality other than the provincial capital.
In this way, the delegates are those of the Government, Education, Equality, Development, Culture, Tourism, Justice, Agriculture, Environment, Health and Employment and Economy. There is also a delegate in each province of the Andalusian Youth Institute, which was previously attached to the Ministry of Equality and is now Employment.
In the absence of knowing the details of the publication of the decree in the BOJA, it will be the Ministers of Culture and Equality, Patricia del Pozo and Rocio Ruiz, who will have to name the officials, since the others had either delegates or another position that appeared with the name of “provincial coordinator”.
The spokesman for the PSOE, Jose Fiscal, has criticized what he understands as “hypocrisy” of the PP, since “in the middle of the second wave, at night, he intends to sneak in more senior positions to please people from his party” and so that the vice president Juan Marin (Cs) “keep doing patronage in yours, while refusing to reinforce the public health workforce.” Prosecutor argues that these 24 senior positions that will entail “a cost of between 800,000 and one million euros” when this amount “could be used to increase the health workforce.”
The spokesperson of Podemos Andalucia, Libertad Benitez, has stated that “once again the promises of the PP and Ciudadanos in terms of reducing charges are once again up in smoke, short-term lies” that show that the Executive of Juanma Moreno has won in few months will be the “of plugs and waste”.
In a statement, he pointed out that the Andalusian Government has created, “taking advantage of Christmas to make as little noise as possible”, “at least 16 new territorial delegates with their respective teams and official cars, which will mean a new waste” in a year where The priorities should be public health and education in the face of the strong blow caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
