Paralysis in the Catalan town halls due to the lack of authorized officials

The optimal functioning of a municipal corporation depends 90% on the legal training of its officials, especially those designated to oversee the economic management of a city council, such as auditors, secretaries and treasurers.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 November 2022 Friday 01:31
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Paralysis in the Catalan town halls due to the lack of authorized officials

The optimal functioning of a municipal corporation depends 90% on the legal training of its officials, especially those designated to oversee the economic management of a city council, such as auditors, secretaries and treasurers. Without these figures, the municipality is paralyzed, as has been happening in recent months in Catalonia.

The one in charge of nurturing these professionals to the municipal entities is the Ministry of Public Administrations since in 2103 it withdrew the competences from the autonomous communities. However, it does not generate enough calls to cover all vacancies. A situation that in Catalonia becomes dramatic when a large number of municipalities are paralyzed by not having these officials with state authorization.

Aware of this problem, which causes serious setbacks to the municipalities, the general director of Local Administration of the Department of the Presidency of the Generalitat, Montserrat Fornells, has set up a job bank to temporarily cover jobs reserved for career civil servants of the subscales of intervention secretary (74 places available), entrance secretary (17) and treasury intervention (20) of the scale of civil servants of the local administration.

The urgency of the call is justified by the situation of paralysis suffered by a large number of Catalan municipalities. “We must reverse the situation of the lack of calls for vacancies in the Ministry”, justifies David Rodríguez, secretary of Local Governments of the Generalitat. To this end, he insistently calls for the recovery of powers in this matter "as the Basque Government has achieved" in the negotiation of the latest State budgets.

An added problem to fill these vacancies is that the few calls that are made force professionals who apply for a place to travel to Madrid to take the tests, as well as the qualification course, so very few Catalans choose to compete.

Another drawback is the lack of generational change and the unattractiveness of "working in public administration" for young people. For this reason, the Generalitat proposes an awareness campaign in this regard.

In parallel, entities such as the Diputación de Barcelona advance and develop strategies to hire talent, either by recruiting them at universities or with scholarships for stays in the administration, among other solutions.

An added setback is the competition that is generated between municipalities. "When you have a good auditor, a large city council comes and signs you because it pays you more," exemplifies Annabel Moreno, mayor of Arenys de Mar.

Of the 1,520 positions of secretaries, auditors or treasurers available, only 39% are filled. 42% of the remaining positions are from municipalities that are forced to work with non-authorized officials or with "accidental or interim" appointments, for which the responsibility falls on the mayors who sign the authorization, aware that their corporation cannot stay in suspense.

In other cases, such as in Argentona, the supervisor's medical leave prevents another worker from being temporarily enabled, so they cannot even pay the bills. One of the partial solutions adopted is that the vacancy be filled by an accumulated, an official from another municipality who is allowed to work 30% of his working day in another municipality.