Cutting Down To Size: The Council of Mallorca

A few days ago I mentioned the fact that the left-wing Bloc group had suggested that responsibilities for certain ministries at regional government level should be transferred to the island councils, such as the Mallorca Council. It didn’t seem much of an idea, and ran counter to my own view that it is the council which needs trimming. Well, what do you know?

The Bloc’s idea has not been taken up, but there is talk flying around as to the future of the council. Not before time. The Partido Popular has been making overtures to the president of the council, Francina Armengol (PSOE), in terms of creating a “pact” in seeking significant cost reductions at the council. It reckons that some 60 million euros could be saved annually by avoiding “duplications” within government – the whole of government. Note the word “duplications”. I have been saying this for ages. Even before the “crisis” brought on the demand for austerity measures and for rationalisation, the existence of the council seemed questionable. It is now being questioned. Seriously.

The PP may be talking about rationalisation, but other politicans are openly talking about doing away with the council. To this end, Armengol has offered her own “pact”, one that would cut costs and “defend” the council from “opinions that this administration (the council) should be scrapped”. Well, she would look to defend it; she is, after all, the president.

It is still most unlikely that something as radical as the elimination of the council would ever happen, but the fact that the notion is being given an airing is indicative of the urgency with which local politicians are having to confront cost-cutting measures and of a realisation that there is something wrong with the structure of government in Mallorca and the islands.

At regional government level, there has already been a rationalisation, one that has included the combining of tourism with employment under one minister, Joana Barceló, an ally in the PSOE of President Antich. This wasn’t the move I have argued for several times, that tourism should be part of the office of the presidency, but other responsibilities (notably agriculture) now are. The closeness of Antich and Barceló is the next best thing; the two were together in Moscow, attempting to charm Russian tour operators and their clients.

Some realism in the structure of the island’s government does seem to be emerging. It shouldn’t have taken the crisis to bring it about, but better late than never. The obstacle to real change is likely, though, to be political. Not that restructuring should necessarily be a party matter. But the calls for moves such as scrapping or slimming the council are coming from the right. As someone more inclined to the left, this may not sit easily with me, but a beef I have long had with the left, here and in the UK, is the tendency to over-government. It shouldn’t be a political issue; it should be common sense.

* Quotes above in translation from reports in “The Diario”.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The 169 Position: Rationalisation of government companies

Call me clairvoyant, but the Balearic Government’s rationalisation of its so-called “companies” is to bring about a merger between Inestur and IBATUR, two tourism agencies which have, since the former was established seven years ago, duplicated much effort. It is hardly public administration rocket science to appreciate that there is no point in having two agencies. A question should be, though, why there ever were two; why Inestur was ever formed. Its main purpose seems to have been as a conduit for siphoning off public funds into the coffers of the Unió Mallorquina party – allegedly.

The rationalisation affects at least a half of these companies, of which there are – get this – 169. What on earth are they all and what on earth do they all do? Add them into the various levels of government in Mallorca, and you complete the picture of the insanity of the public sector for an island with under a million people (or a couple of hundred thousand over a million, if you lump in the whole of the Balearics). But in announcing the rationalisation, President Antich has said that jobs are not to be affected. Why ever not? Simple. It would be politically unacceptable and would merely add to the unemployment burden. Were these “real” companies, however, with “real” shareholders, mergers would lead to job losses. What savings are truly going to be achieved by maintaining jobs that will still duplicate effort? The turf wars that will result from these mergers would be the stuff of dreams for a management researcher studying cultures in combined businesses; they are a recipe for unproductive behaviour and organisation.

There are all manner of suggestions and observations flying around as to this rationalisation process. “The Bulletin”, commenting on the fact that the agriculture and fisheries ministry is to be swallowed up by the office of the presidency, asks why such a ministry is needed. Agriculture is far less important than it once was, but it still is important to Mallorca. Potato exports, almonds, wine, the traditional subsistence crops such as cabbage; they are hardly unimportant. And if one takes the words of those “gurus” from a few days back, agriculture should be something of the back to the future for the Mallorcan economy. No, there probably is a need for such a ministry, if, that is, one believes agriculture to be of strategic significance, like tourism.

Strategic. That is something missing in all this. A suggestion from the left-wing Bloc is that the tourism and transport ministries at government level should be scrapped and responsibilities handed over to the island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca. Why stop at these? Why not hand all ministries over to the councils and get rid of the regional government? It’s the reverse take on my belief that it is the councils which should go, a move that would make a genuine saving in public spending.

It is the lack of strategic thinking that is worrying. The government is casting around, looking for anything it can to be the target of a short-term fix. Which is not to say that there isn’t some sense to merging pointless agencies (“companies”). But the pressing need is for a thorough strategic review – from top to bottom – of the whole system of public administration, which is probably why it won’t happen.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Window-Dressing: The Balearic Government’s adjustment measures

The local “austerity” and “adjustment” measures are taking shape. The regional government will raise income tax for high earners, but it is opposing the central government’s move to prevent town halls getting into greater debt. Ministries at regional level are to be further rationalised, this time as a means of saving money as opposed to being a political expedient (as was the case with the combining of transport and environment). These measures come on top of the increase in IVA (VAT) which is due to kick in from 1 July. The opposition Partido Popular is, as you might expect, against the income tax rise and the ministry rationalisation. So much for any consensus for getting Mallorca and the Balearic out of their current mess.

Changes at government level, scrapping specific ministries for agriculture and work, can be seen as either window-dressing or sensible. The office of the president will assume responsibility for agriculture, and work will be combined with tourism, a justification for the latter being that as tourism is the main generator of employment then it makes sense to bring them together. Up to a point, the government has a point. But does getting away with a couple of ministers really amount to much? There will still, presumably, be civil servants to support the combined ministries. That President Antich is holding out for the town halls to still be able to mount up debt just adds to what I would say is in fact window-dressing. If there is to be rationalisation at governmental level – at all governmental levels – then it needs to be more savage. The question would be, what?

I am, as you might be aware, unconvinced as to the necessity for the Council of Mallorca, but this would be most unlikely to be either rationalised dramatically or scrapped altogether. There have been suggestions that local municipalities should be merged. This might reduce all the duplication, but it would be politically (and socially) impossible. The towns are historical entities, and the notion of local representation is long; even during Franco’s time it remained. Putting towns together would only create the potential for alienation which already exists, as in, for example, Puerto Pollensa. It is the functions at town hall level that need addressing, not the number of town halls.

The regional government is also looking at the role and the funding of some of its agencies or “companies”, as they are called. One such is Inestur, the tourism strategy institute at the heart of the massive corruption scandal that led to Unió Mallorquina ministers being booted out of the coalition. There are other such companies. But what do they do? In Inestur’s case, it serves different roles – one is promotion of aspects of tourism to tourists. Why? There are other agencies doing the same thing, such as IBATUR, which is the tourism board, and not to be confused with the essentially private Fomento del Turismo (otherwise known as the tourism board). Confusing, huh? Confusing and seemingly duplicating. Inestur also acts in a research capacity, which is rather more acceptable a purpose. However, when you consider what it provides, e.g. library facilities, archives, etc., you do have to wonder why this can’t be rolled into efforts at the university’s tourism department, which provides a similar function.

Yesterday, I sent an email to Inestur. Why? To tell them that I have a project in mind that would be aimed at tourism promotion of Mallorca overseas and to ask if it would be possible to make an appointment so that I could come and explain it in greater detail and to discuss possible assistance or collaboration. They may well have read the word “ayuda” (meaning help or assistance) and thought “money”. That wasn’t what I had in mind (well not necessarily). And the project is not another tourism website; it’s something completely different and unique, not aimed at tourists as such. Whatever. I have had no response. Maybe they will respond, but I’m not holding my breath.

But rather as tourism promotion as a whole is, or should be, a collaboration between public and private sectors – as evidenced by the very existence of the Fomento – so I’m raising the possibility of just such a collaboration. Greater involvement by the private sector is just one way that the government can trim its costs. But more fundamental is the need for a root-and-branch study of the system of public administration in Mallorca. Chopping a couple of ministries does not amount to this; it is window-dressing.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Town Hall Spends

When there is talk about the difficulties facing the two main industries in Mallorca – tourism and construction – it is perhaps easy to overlook a sector of the economy that has enjoyed significant growth since the turn of the century. Whether it should have enjoyed such growth is open to debate, for that sector is public administration, and nowhere has this growth been more evident than at the island’s town halls.

Since 1999, the spend on town hall personnel has doubled, and in “The Diario” yesterday the percentage increases in terms of this spend were set out – municipality by municipality. In the northern area, some of these increases appear staggering – 252% in Búger for example – but one has to bear in mind from what base these figures are calculated. Nevertheless, 152% in Muro, 175% in Sa Pobla, 154% in Pollensa all sound like a lot. Only Alcúdia has not broken the 100 barrier, by a mere 0.4 of a per cent. Sound like a lot but not by comparison with some of the smaller towns – Santa Eugènia has experienced a rise of 2,700 per cent. There again, it used to spend the equivalent of a mere 14,300 euros in 1999.

The explanation for the increases lies, partly, with an improvement – a necessary improvement – in the provision of local services such as sanitation and education. One cannot dismiss all the rises as extravagance. Generally, the largest rises have occurred at the town halls of the smaller municipalities. The figures for Pollensa and Alcúdia might strike one as being excessive, but they are lower than elsewhere.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to be concerned by these figures. Firstly, the financing of greater town hall spends was a feature of what is referred to as the “years of economic bonanza”, the period of a dash for growth echoed across Spain in both the private and public sectors, but one that relied to no small extent on European benevolence and easy credit. Rather as the entire Spanish and Mallorcan economies have been exposed as shaky in their sustainability, because of loose credit and a lack of diversification, so the public sector town halls now face unsustainability in terms of further growth in personnel numbers and spend.

Secondly, there are issues as to priorities and to what can seem like duplication of departmental responsibilities that mirror levels of government higher up the public administration food chain – the Council of Mallorca and regional government. Not all town halls in Mallorca are faced with a dual economy, one that deals both with needs of residents and of tourists, but many are. While services like police, rubbish collection, street cleaning are essential for both sets of needs, there is also the frontline provision of assistance to tourists – i.e. the tourist offices. In Alcúdia, for instance, it has long been the case that the department is under-resourced, resulting in offices not being manned as long as they should be. In Playa de Muro and Can Picafort, the offices make do with minimal staffing, while Playa de Muro could do with a satellite office in Alcúdia Pins and Can Picafort with two, neither of them the current one that is located in no-tourist land between Son Bauló and the main centre of Can Picafort. Where the police are concerned, the lack of coverage in Son Serra de Marina has been well-publicised, while Alcúdia would benefit from greater numbers to tackle some of the stuff that happens on the streets and for which by-laws exist yet are often flouted.

Local myth would have it that the town halls are in fact over-staffed, reflecting a culture of excessive bureaucracy and jobsworthing. To an extent, this may be true – hence my initial point as to how debatably sensible some of the personnel growth has been. Yet it is the apparent duplication that raises most questions. A case in point is that of Alcúdia and its canals, bridges and lakes, all environmental features but the responsibility not of the town hall’s environment department but the central Costas authority.

The wider issue is, or should be, public administration in its totality. In other words, the interaction between the different levels of government and the allocation of responsibilities. It is this total bureaucracy that can be excessive, bloated and time-consuming, such as in the case of the convoluted process of granting hotel building licences that involves local and central departments and which leads to so much work being undertaken without a licence or with one pending; and this despite the loosening of regulations recently.

The town hall spends may or may not be too high, but with the federation of local authorities admitting that current levels cannot be sustained, it is time for a fundamental appraisal of the island’s public provision – at all levels.