"Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron."
The Book of Job gave us the Behemoth, a creature of great power, marauding across Old Testament lands. It is mentioned in other literature, always as some monster that could not be conquered. The Behemoth subsequently passed into the vernacular as a means of describing something extremely large and powerful.
In 2011, Maria Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca, adopted the Behemoth as the symbol of her Council. It was an expensive and inefficient Behemoth, she explained, prior to becoming president, but she was going to tame it.
Maria is not possessed of godly powers, so tackling the Behemoth was always going to be tricky. It is a creature that mere mortals should be wary of. Including President Bauzá. When he had the audacity to suggest that the Behemoth be cut down to the size of a dormouse and adopt an essentially advisory role, the fires of hell threatened to engulf him. Strangely, though Maria was all for emasculating the Behemoth, she was not inclined to agree with her superior in the Consulat del Mar. The Behemoth might need resizing downwards but it would remain the equivalent of a baby hippo, ready at any moment to grow back to full lumbering size.
Does anyone like the Council? Derided for being expensive, bloated and an unnecessary and pointless level of public administration, it would seem that few have a good word for it. However, not all is as it seems. The Council has its many supporters, one of which is The Pine Party - El Pi. It wants to turn the Council into the government of Mallorca. It is fighting for "what we want most: out land, our language and our culture". Fine, but does this require the Council of Mallorca retaining full or indeed greater Behemoth status? El Pi, whose chances of securing seats in the regional parliament are fractionally greater than zero, might well be eyeing up better opportunities in the Council, where one of its progenitors - the Unió Mallorquina - once ruled: Maria Munar would charge across the island on the Behemoth, gobbling up ever more pieces of power with which to feed its voracious appetite.
Jaume Font's party would thus not be in agreement with Maria Salom. She has proposed reducing the number of councillors at the Council from 33 to 23, so completing the "paradigm shift" she has introduced, one of creating Behemoth-lite. Having done away with half of the senior management types at the Council, Maria is intent on further cutting the amounts spent on political representation. Bauzá, forgetting the dormouse proposal and now showing solidarity with Maria, who is after all number two behind him on the PP's parliament candidate list, opined that Maria was coming up with "real solutions, the fruit of analysis and consensus".
The trouble is that Bauzá and others throw the consensus word around when it clearly doesn't exist. He would only need to ask Jaume Font. Or Francesc Miralles, who heads the PSOE list for the Council's election. "For the PP, the Council is outdated and non-existent", as demonstrated by the Salom proposal. The intention is to weaken the Council. But why should he believe this? Like Bauzá's attempt (a dashed one) to reduce the number of parliamentary deputies by sixteen, Salom's proposal is one with which it is hard to disagree. Why on earth are 59 deputies needed? Or 33 councillors? What is the point of them all?
The more fundamental question of course is what is the point of the Council of Mallorca. The easy answer is that there isn't one. For an island (and islands) with the population that there is, surely it isn't necessary for there to be this additional level of public administration. Well, possibly. But if there were no Council, there would still be a requirement to administer the roads, the waste, the land, the water, the culture, among other things. It is too simplistic to believe that these should all be shifted to the Balearic Government: it is a government for a region not for an island.
The other islands have their councils, and Mallorca needs its as well. But what it doesn't need is an administration that grows like topsy into the Behemoth that it did, duplicating efforts, dispensing positions and jobs of questionable validity, behaving like a government it never was. The Behemoth has been caged if not fully tamed. But will it be unleashed once more?
Index for April 2015
Alcúdia tourism promotion - 11 April 2015
Alcúdia's bridges - 25 April 2015
Balearics presidential candidates - 8 April 2015
Being Mallorcan - 22 April 2015
Ca de Bou - 12 April 2015
Cala Ratjada - Germans in the 1930s - 29 April 2015
Council of Mallorca - 30 April 2015
Día Sant Jordí - 19 April 2015
Easter picnics in Mallorca - 5 April 2015
Education march - 27 April 2015
Ensaimada - 14 April 2015
Health treatment, immigrants and PP - 6 April 2015
Hotelier power in Mallorca - 15 April 2015
José María Rodríguez - 16 April 2015
Mallorca and Wisden - 9 April 2015
Maria Dolores Cospedal - plundering gaffe - 26 April 2015
Olive ebola - 28 April 2015
Palacio de Congresos - 13 April 2015
Palma - 2 April 2015
Partido Popular imploding - 3 April 2015
Partido Popular parliament list - 18 April 2015
Proportional representation - 21 April 2015
Soapy pine of Campanet - 4 April 2015
Souvenir shops - 1 April 2015
Tourism law - 20 April 2015
Tourist tax - 10 April 2015, 24 April 2015
Travel writing - 7 April 2015
Worst hotels - 23 April 2015
Zero advertising spend on tourism - 17 April 2015
Showing posts with label Public administration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Public administration. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Rambla: In the name of participation
In one of its not infrequent moments of translation comedy gold, the trilinguistically-correct Balearic Government recently pressed the click button on its machine translation system of choice and revealed - on its own website - that the minister for public administration had acquired a completely new name. Staggeringly, this was machine translation from Catalan to Castellano and thus Nuria Riera became Nuria Rambla. There is a fairly obvious question here. Why does a government with a firmly pro-Castellano policy in a land where Castellano is a co-official language supposedly spoken by everyone need to use Bing or Google to translate into Castellano? Catalan hasn't taken over that much, surely.
The machine-translation game is one with endless possibilities for amusement and entertainment, and it is one that the regional government has perfected. It has, just as one example, a form on its website in English that allows you to find out about activities of associations. It notes, however: "You can accede to the codes of the purposes and their activities doing click on the attached text document. We noticed to you that the data of the associations enrolled in this new computer science system come from the old application and some still are reviewing since they are updated periodically. By this, it is possible that some data still appear with the old code or information nonupdated. We worked with the objective to reach a complete information. You excuse the annoyances."
Strangely, when one clicks on "directori d'associacions", you get by default this English form. It is doubly strange given that there is virtually nothing else in English on this part of the public administration ministry's section of the government's website. It is a part of the website for "citizen participation" and in particular something called "Balear Opina". This is a new "virtual space", a press release has usefully informed us, to "enhance citizen participation" by bringing together "all resources and tools to enable (citizens') contributions". Just some of these contributions can be questions, suggestions and requests for information, but don't anyone go expecting that there is something approximating freedom of information, because there isn't, while these questions, suggestions and requests had better all be made in Catalan or Castellano. Try asking in English and God alone knows how Google will mangle the question. In fact, to be on the safe side, it would be best to ask in Catalan, as the government doesn't appear to understand Castellano either; hence, Nuria Rambla.
The Balear Opina and citizen participation thing are, so the website tells us, concepts to which the government is committed. As is normal for any government communication, it insists on citing laws and decrees which give credence to this commitment, and it starts by saying that "democracy is based on ... the plurality of ideas and opinions; it is necessary to create a mechanism for control and management (of elected representatives) by the public outside the election period".
Democracy is indeed based on the plurality of opinions, but some opinions become law whereas others remain simply opinions. Take, if you will, the language issue. As the majority of citizens reject the opinion of elected officials who have passed legislation which undermines Catalan, will the Balear Opina mechanism enable the citizens, through control and management, to have this legalised opinion changed? Of course it won't. You can read "mechanism for control and management" as meaning holding elected officials to account, and if they really were held to account, then they would alter legislation that is at variance with majority opinion. But government doesn't work like this. Here or anywhere. The participation thing is a grand illusion.
For Nuria Riera, no doubt, the Balear Opina is a fine creation of governmental openness, communication and explanation. As ever, though, there is a great difference between the practice of openness and its theory. Take another example, the Partido Popular's discount card for members. The hoo-hah over this was brought to an abrupt halt when Riera announced that the card was perfectly legal and that the government had nothing more to say on the matter. The correspondence was closed, so to speak.
Riera is relatively new to governmental circles. She clambered aboard the Good Ship Bauzá, listing because of the storms of Catalan, after the president sacked half his cabinet in May last year. She got the job at public administration, a ministry rarely under public scrutiny because no one is too sure what it does, and also took over the unenviable task of government spokesperson. She's the one, therefore, who has to try and explain what on earth it's up to. And now she can be conscious of what opinion the public has. Or ignore what opinion the public has. There is, if you play the Google-Bing game, a different translation of her name. From Castellano to English. Laugh. Having one.
The machine-translation game is one with endless possibilities for amusement and entertainment, and it is one that the regional government has perfected. It has, just as one example, a form on its website in English that allows you to find out about activities of associations. It notes, however: "You can accede to the codes of the purposes and their activities doing click on the attached text document. We noticed to you that the data of the associations enrolled in this new computer science system come from the old application and some still are reviewing since they are updated periodically. By this, it is possible that some data still appear with the old code or information nonupdated. We worked with the objective to reach a complete information. You excuse the annoyances."
Strangely, when one clicks on "directori d'associacions", you get by default this English form. It is doubly strange given that there is virtually nothing else in English on this part of the public administration ministry's section of the government's website. It is a part of the website for "citizen participation" and in particular something called "Balear Opina". This is a new "virtual space", a press release has usefully informed us, to "enhance citizen participation" by bringing together "all resources and tools to enable (citizens') contributions". Just some of these contributions can be questions, suggestions and requests for information, but don't anyone go expecting that there is something approximating freedom of information, because there isn't, while these questions, suggestions and requests had better all be made in Catalan or Castellano. Try asking in English and God alone knows how Google will mangle the question. In fact, to be on the safe side, it would be best to ask in Catalan, as the government doesn't appear to understand Castellano either; hence, Nuria Rambla.
The Balear Opina and citizen participation thing are, so the website tells us, concepts to which the government is committed. As is normal for any government communication, it insists on citing laws and decrees which give credence to this commitment, and it starts by saying that "democracy is based on ... the plurality of ideas and opinions; it is necessary to create a mechanism for control and management (of elected representatives) by the public outside the election period".
Democracy is indeed based on the plurality of opinions, but some opinions become law whereas others remain simply opinions. Take, if you will, the language issue. As the majority of citizens reject the opinion of elected officials who have passed legislation which undermines Catalan, will the Balear Opina mechanism enable the citizens, through control and management, to have this legalised opinion changed? Of course it won't. You can read "mechanism for control and management" as meaning holding elected officials to account, and if they really were held to account, then they would alter legislation that is at variance with majority opinion. But government doesn't work like this. Here or anywhere. The participation thing is a grand illusion.
For Nuria Riera, no doubt, the Balear Opina is a fine creation of governmental openness, communication and explanation. As ever, though, there is a great difference between the practice of openness and its theory. Take another example, the Partido Popular's discount card for members. The hoo-hah over this was brought to an abrupt halt when Riera announced that the card was perfectly legal and that the government had nothing more to say on the matter. The correspondence was closed, so to speak.
Riera is relatively new to governmental circles. She clambered aboard the Good Ship Bauzá, listing because of the storms of Catalan, after the president sacked half his cabinet in May last year. She got the job at public administration, a ministry rarely under public scrutiny because no one is too sure what it does, and also took over the unenviable task of government spokesperson. She's the one, therefore, who has to try and explain what on earth it's up to. And now she can be conscious of what opinion the public has. Or ignore what opinion the public has. There is, if you play the Google-Bing game, a different translation of her name. From Castellano to English. Laugh. Having one.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
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 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.
Friday, June 04, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, January 11, 2010
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.
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.
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