The Government of Aragon will be able to fill with its own funds the hole of some 75 million euros that it suffered to pay the salaries of doctors and teachers in 2024. The Auditor General, Ana Gómez Barrionuevo, warned of the need to increase the two positions between 68 and 78 million to pay the full remuneration.. These will be paid using contributions already collected in the accounts themselves.
Concretely, these amounts will come from chapter 30 of the Aragonese budget, which has 135 million as a reserve of funds to face salary increases for civil servants. “Globally, there is credit to absorb these gaps in education and health.. There is a sufficient amount to finance these deficits,” assured the auditor.
In the Aragonese Health Service, the necessary increase of between 43 and 48 million is justified, in part, by the payment of professional career arrears since 2018. The regional government paid 22 million euros in January, a figure which would rise throughout the year to 75 million.. Furthermore, the salary increase approved by decree in June and which will begin to be paid in the September payroll is not yet taken into account.
Overall, according to Gómez Barrionuevo, The personnel expenditure budget, the largest of the entire Budget, increased by 9.3% in 2024. This allows, according to him, to have “sufficient capacity” to pay salaries and a “margin” to “absorb” the agreed salary increases.
The Community Controller, Ana Gómez Barrionuevo, appeared this Monday at the Finance Commission
Cortes of Aragon
Zaragoza
The auditor appeared this Monday at the Cortes of Aragon to explain her report in which she warned against these “budgetary insufficiencies”, even if she removed the irony by referring to article 30.As of August 31, we understand that there should be no issues with available credit”was settled.
In this context, the opposition criticized the fact that the Government of Aragon did not take these positions into account directly in personnel costs. PSOE MP Óscar Galeano influenced the words of President Jorge Azcón when he guaranteed that the budget would be “well financed”. “Our criticism lies in the poor budgeting of Chapter 1. It seems that what we had done very badly, the PP has done worse,” he said.
In this sense, the auditor alluded to the fact that these modifications have been repeated “since we received the powers of Health and Education” and that it is a “consolidated practice”. “I wouldn’t say it’s bad budgeting. Preparation begins on dates when the future of personnel costs is not known.. There are decisions that are adopted in the second semester,” added Gómez Barrionuevo.
