Less money again this year for Municipality public works

The Municipality’s Technical Programme was approved by a majority vote at Thursday’s council meeting. It was presented by the Deputy Mayor for Technical Services, Andreas Goulis, who announced that the money from the Ministry of the Interior earmarked for public works is 539,000 Euros less than last year.

The total amount available comes to 5,185,678 Euros, with 1.4m coming from the Ministry of the Interior (SATA) – as opposed to 1.9m last year. Of the money from SATA, approximately 1m is for the maintenance of public and rural roads, 170,000 for pavements and pedestrian areas, 35,000 for creating facilities for people with special needs and the remainder for the maintenance of public buildings and lighting.

Apart from the Ministry funds (SATA), the deputy mayor stated that there is also money from own resources – 100,000 for the creation of school playgrounds and 25,000 for the construction of lifeguard towers.

2m will come from the Public Investment Programme (PDE) for the maintenance of public roads. The Technical Programme also includes 800,000 from the PDE for the construction of an indoor gym in north Corfu, for which a study is being carried out at the moment, invitations for tenders are expected to be announced towards the end of 2018 and the work is expected to be completed in 2019. Another 244,000 will come from PDE for work on the harbour area at Benitses.

Sources of Funds for the Technical Programme.

SATA                                                                                                     1,415,850
SATA – Schools                                                                                     425,900
Own Resources                                                                                    125,000
Civil Protection (Ministry of Interior)                                                175,000
Public Investment Programme (PDE)                                          3,043,928

                                                                                TOTAL                   5,185,678 Euros
 
Patching up the pot-holes.

Road maintenance is one of the island’s basic problems. The following is an analysis of how the funds will be spent in each district.

ROAD WORKS – CORFU

1. Public roads - Ag. Georgios, Esperion, Thinalion, Kassiopi                                                                              180,000
2. Public roads - Achilleion, Parelion, Paleokastritsa     156,500
3. Public roads - Corfu and Faiakes                                   156,500
4. Public roads - Meliteion, Korissia, Lefkimmi                128,000
5. Rural roads - Ag. Georgios, Esperion, Thinalion, Kassiopi                                                                                                                 70,000
6. Rural roads - Achilleion, Parelion, Paleokastritsa       105,000
7. Rural roads - Corfu and Faiakes                                       71,400
8. Rural roads - Meliteion, Korissia, Lefkimmi                  112,200
9. Diapontia Islands                                                                  80,000

                                     Sub-Total with SATA Funding                  1,059,600

Public road maintenance

10. Corfu and Faiakes                                                                900,000
11. Ag. Georgios, Esperion, Thinalion, Kassiopi                  325,000
12. Achilleion, Parelion, Paleokastritsa                                   325,000
13. Meliteion, Korissia, Lefkimmi                                              300,000
14. Diapontia Islands                                                                  150,000

                                      Sub-Total with PDE Funding                   2,000,000

Maintaining and improving roads for fire engine access.

15. Ag. Georgios, Esperion, Thinalion, Kassiopi                     50,000
16. Achilleion, Parelion, Paleokastritsa                                     45,000
17. Meliteion, Korissia, Lefkimmi                                                30,000
18. Othonas, Mathraki, Ericoussa                                               30,000

Sub-Total with Civil Protection – Ministry of Interior Funding    155,000
 
How many of these are being done?

It is interesting to take a look at the proportion of the funds that were taken up – in other words, how much of the money was actually used. The shortfall on the take up of available funds in general is usually due to several factors that are part and parcel of local administration – endless bureaucracy, delays in the response of local administration ‘machinery’ etc.

2017
The funds for the public works technical programme in 2017 came to approximately 1.9m, of which 1.6m was used – 73.5%.
Specifically, the following amounts were used: 100% for rural roads, 100% for public roads, 13.6% for maintenance of public buildings, 100% for pavements and pedestrian areas, 0% for anti-flooding works and 0% for lighting. The SATA - Schools funds for 2016 were 216,000 and 100% was used, whereas the SATA- Schools funds for 2017 weren’t used and have been included in the funds for 2018 – 426,000 in total now.

2016
The funds for the public works technical programme in 2016 came to approximately 1.4m, of which 1.04m was used – 75.5%.
Specifically, the following amounts were used: 100% for rural roads, 86% for public roads (minus the roads in Ag. Georgios, Esperion, Thinalion, Kassiopi), 80% for maintenance of public buildings, 32% for maintenance of public lighting, 55% for landscaping, 0% for anti-flooding works. 110,000 which was earmarked for housing estates in Temploni and Corfu was not used.

How they voted at the council meeting.

The Technical Programme for 2018 was approved by a majority vote. The Yes votes came from the majority party, the party ‘Kerkyra Na Zeis’ (Giannis Trepeklis) and two independent councillors – Gousis and Vlachou. The No votes came from the parties ‘Kerkyraion Dimos’ (Meropi Ydraiou) and ‘Laiki Syspeirosi’ (B. Haralambos). Giorgos Raidestinos abstained.