Last year, the Generalitat executed 95.5% of the investments in the 2021 budget, which was carried over from the previous year. This is a higher percentage than the 89% of the previous year. The figures were released yesterday by the Minister of the Economy, Jaume Giró, in Parliament and he put them in contrast to the 35.7% execution of the State in Catalonia also last year.
The Generalitat invested 1,318.2 million euros compared to the 1,380.4 million of the extended budget for the year. The level of execution in 2021 is the highest since 2014, when it reached 97.5%. On the other hand, the lowest levels of execution are those that occurred in 2013 (56.6%) and in 2016 (61.8%).
The Minister explained that the execution of the Generalitat is 71.5% but that it reaches 95.5% when all the entities that make up the public sector are added. Giró specified that 95.5% of execution is the comparable figure with 35.7% of the State.
The minister lamented that the State investment deficit in Catalonia is an “endemic wrong” and added that, “when a political injustice lasts half a century, it is difficult to believe that whoever provokes it has any intention of correcting it”. The person in charge of Economy of the Generalitat made these declarations in an interpellation on the historical deficit of investments of the State in Catalonia in the Parlament.
For the minister, this deficit prevents “our hatching as a country” and is an endemic aggravation that there is no way to correct no matter how many efforts are made. “This problem is not called 3%, it is called 36%. It is endemic, it suffocates us and makes us feel humiliated”. Yesterday Giró enumerated the list of different works pending execution, which in some cases extend for decades.
In his opinion, this historic investment deficit is linked to “the consolidation of a certain State model, a centralist State model that has no hesitation in sacrificing the periphery to strengthen the capital, and that does not depend on who governs.”
On the other hand, Minister Giró also announced that, this June, he will take the preliminary report of the preliminary draft of the Catalan public contracting law to the Government for its approval. The Minister explained that the new text, which would hold its consultation process during the month of July, “intends to establish a legislative framework that is the reference for public procurement in Catalonia at all levels”. In this sense, he specified that the draft incorporates measures to improve the agility of the processes or guarantee the quality of the contracted lambs and services.
