The City Council settles the debt of almost 3 million euros left by the PSOE in Estepona due to non-payments in the construction of the Fire Station.

The current government team has had to pay almost 3 million euros, including principal and interest for late payment, for the legal claim filed by the construction company for works that were awarded in 2005.

The Estepona City Council has finished paying, this past April, the totality of the large debt left by the previous Corporations led by the PSOE and derived from the non-payments of the construction of the Fire Station of the city. The socialists left a debt of 2.8 million euros, between principal and interest on arrears claimed by the construction company, which the current government team has had to face.

The construction of the Fire Station was awarded in 2005 and was modified in 2006 for a total of 3,153,716 million euros. Of this amount, 53% of the certifications were paid between 2005 and 2007, i.e. a total of 1,605,293 million euros. During the following four years, between 2008 and 2011, not a single euro was paid by the Socialist Executive, leaving 1,202,412 million euros pending payment.

With the arrival to the City Council of the current government team, and within the actions developed to address the large amount of municipal debt and unpaid invoices that were found, the local Executive tried to frame this debt the Payment Plan to Suppliers that was launched in those years by the PP Government of Spain to avoid the collapse of local administrations. However, it was only possible to pay under this plan a certification of 346,010 euros, since the construction company of the Fire Station hired by the Socialists had endorsed much of that debt to the bank and, therefore, did not meet the requirements. However, thanks to that first payment made with José María García Urbano as mayor, it was possible to open the facilities, which until then had remained closed.

The rest of the amounts owed due to the nefarious management of the PSOE in the Estepona City Council ended up in court, which in 2020 condemned the City Council to pay 1,202,412 euros of principal and another 1,306,395 million euros of interest.

In order to face such amount of inherited debt the Consistory negotiated a payment plan until 2025. The principal was paid in 2021 and 2022, and the remaining interest has been paid in 12 quarterly installments of 108,866 euros, the last one having been completed this April.

The deputy mayor of the Treasury area, Ana Vilaseca, states that “this is the way the socialists manage: they paid half of the work, between 2008 and 2011 they paid nothing, and the rest remained unpaid for years until this government team arrived, which also had to assume the enormous interest cost overrun for not paying in time and form. These interests have cost the city an increase of 45% of the price of the work,” he stresses. “It is another disastrous example of what should never happen in a public administration, as it has finished paying almost two decades later a facility so necessary for the city,” concluded Vilaseca.