This Sunday, in the Assembly Hall of the Municipality of Concordia, the delivery of financial reports and the signing of the municipal administration handover records were formalized between Enrique Cresto (the mayor who finished his term) and Francisco Azcué (the mayor who begins his administration at the head of the municipality).
In the ceremony, the notary public Cecilia Challiol read the corresponding record and the Secretary of Government and Treasury, Aldo Álvarez, accompanied Cresto in the delivery of the respective reports. For his part, the Vice President of the Deliberative Council, Felipe Sastre, was in charge of signing the record and receiving the reports, as the councilman will serve as interim mayor until Azcué takes the oath at the inauguration ceremony next Tuesday.
It is standard practice that on these occasions the record includes the formalities established by current regulations and also dedicates some paragraphs to summarizing the achievements reached by the outgoing administration.
In this sense - highlighting that Cresto defined these milestones as “part of a great collective construction that was strengthened through teamwork, dialogue, and the search for consensus” and thanked “the support of the Nation and the Province, the accompaniment of the municipal workers, and the commitment of the different teams that were formed throughout these years” - it is interesting to review the main data that notary public Challiol read before the signing of the record:
“The salaries of municipal personnel were always paid on the last business day of the month, just as employer and personal contributions have been paid regularly to date.- Likewise, the Annual Supplementary Salary was paid throughout the entire administration in a timely manner, having settled the last payment of bonuses as of December 7 of this year,” the document states.
“That the collective bargaining agreements with trade union organizations were always established above the inflation index and accompanied by bonuses and incentives, preserving and defending the purchasing power of the workers.- Which is why municipal wages are currently among the highest, compared to municipalities similar to Concordia in the rest of the country,” it also mentions.
“At the beginning of this administration, the resources allocated to the payment of wages represented more than 60% of the budget and this percentage was reduced, already in the first year of the administration, to 50%; currently standing at 47%.- This constitutes an optimal balance in the distribution of resources allocated to the payment of salaries, the acquisition of machinery and equipment, the execution of works, and the provision of services,” the text argues.
“That in an effort to have a personnel staff that is organized and in accordance with the functions performed and the financial possibilities of the municipality, upon assuming this administration, a freeze on the staff was ordered and during the 8 years of this administration, the permanent staff was always maintained at around 2000 workers. That in the same sense, it is important to highlight that entries to the municipality always occurred in the case of vacancies and specific needs of the corresponding areas, through public competitions and establishing the requirement of completed secondary studies as an indispensable condition to formalize the transition to permanent staff,” the document records.
ANTICYCLICAL FUND AND RESOURCES AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
The record also refers that “as of December 2023, this administration leaves at the disposal of the new authorities an Anticyclical Fund consolidated in two billion seven hundred million eight hundred twenty-seven thousand three hundred twenty-five pesos and fifty-two cents ($ 2,700,827,325.52), which is equivalent to three net salary payrolls and which is composed of: one billion nine hundred sixty-nine million one hundred forty-six thousand three hundred twenty-four pesos and twenty-five cents ($1,969,146,324.25) in fixed-term capital and seven hundred thirty-one million six hundred eighty-one thousand one peso and twenty-seven cents ($ 731,681,001.27) in free availability”
In this sense, it is mentioned that “this Anticyclical Fund was established by ordinance by this administration to allow future administrations to face climatic or environmental emergencies and adverse macroeconomic scenarios without compromising the balance of the municipal coffers”.
Likewise, the summary of what has been done recalls that “this municipality was recognized, awarded, and highlighted at the national level - both in governmental and academic and institutional spheres - for its levels of transparency, citizen participation, and access to public information”.
HISTORIC INVESTMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS
Finally, a special mention is included regarding public works and the joint work with the governments of the Nation and the Province and international credit organizations, specifying that “the investment in public works from 2016 to 2023 through contracts amounts to the approximate sum of three billion nine hundred eighty-one million five hundred eighty-seven thousand five hundred eighty-one pesos and sixty-nine cents ($3,981,587,581.69), that the investment in public works in pavements by municipal administration amounts to the sum of eight hundred twenty million pesos ($820,000,000.00), that the investment in public works by municipal administration, in curbs and complementary improvements amounts to the sum of five hundred forty million pesos ($540,000,000.00), that in addition, for the water treatment plant the investment amounts to two billion four hundred million pesos ($2,400,000,000.00), that investments have been made in the airport, the Abasto, the Costanera Nebel, Vuelta de Obligado, Route 4, Coastal Protection of Castillo San Carlos, with works remaining to continue their execution, namely: Repaving Plan, 75-block Asphalt Plan, Curb, Palacio Arruabarrena, Women's House, CDI El Silencio, CDI La Bianca, four sports courts and works agreed with the Nation and to be executed, namely: Argentine Parks, Ex Aeroclub transfer plant, CDI Expansion, Campo Abasto,” the record concludes.