The President of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has stated that talking about ethics in politics is talking about principles such as honesty, transparency, good governance in public administration, but it is also about agreements and being loyal to them.
During his intervention in the question time in the Andalusian Parliament, Moreno referred to the historic agreement reached with education unions that will have an impact in the next academic year 25/26. This agreement includes structural measures such as strengthening the workforce with over 2,500 teachers, reducing the student-teacher ratio to 22 in the second cycle of early childhood education, reinforcing staff for diversity in primary and secondary education in schools with higher ratios, reinforcing specialist staff in special education, measures for streamlining bureaucracy, and the restoration of the Chair Access Call in the secondary school teaching staff.
He also pointed out that this agreement entails the incorporation of more than 6,000 professionals into the system, in addition to those already reached within the Sectorial Table.
In this way, he emphasized that this agreement is a milestone as it involves redesigning the structure of the educational system for the decades to come and he wanted to thank the trade unions for their dialogue and constructive spirit in wanting to reach agreements.
Appearance of Juanma Moreno before parliamentary groups.
On another note, he asserted that when the Junta detects any signs of corruption or fraud, it reports it to the Prosecutor’s Office, as was the case with the alleged fraud in school transportation contracts in Cádiz. «The Public Agency opened proceedings and dismissed the worker after opening an investigation. The General Intervention was informed and it was taken to the Prosecutor’s Office. We also did this in 2022 with Covid tests, we went to the Prosecutor’s Office to report attempts of fraud with sanitary material.»
The Andalusian President emphasized that the Andalusian Government handles the public funds of all Andalusians with great care, allocating them to what is established in the budget and not to other things.
In this regard, he highlighted that a budget has been approved each year, which represents an exercise in transparency, in addition to being a consolidated budget with instrumental entities and including an annex of personnel and an annex with provincialized investments.
He also emphasized the creation of a budget viewer, to make information accessible to citizens so they can easily understand how public resources are used.
In this respect, he stated that mechanisms of control over public funds have been established such as the creation of specific higher and technical bodies of auditors and auditors (Law 7/2023) with the aim of having a group of highly qualified officials for greater control; the General Directorate of Procurement and the implementation of electronic systems (SiREC) that provide greater controls and more transparency to all public procurement, and the replacement of prior scrutiny of expenditure by permanent financial control.
In this regard, he explained that prior scrutiny is limited to compliance with economic-budgetary legality, with a very limited scope, and that permanent financial control has a much broader scope and analyzes not only legality, but also the effectiveness and efficiency of public spending.
«With all these measures, we want to prevent cases of corruption like those we have experienced in the past. The EREs or the Faffe are macro-cases that, to this day, are still in the courts and where there was a diversion of public funds for cronyism and friendly companies.»
Additionally, and in light of all the news that has come out in recent weeks, he lamented that essential works for the mobility of Andalusia are experiencing cost overruns and delays and added that they have asked the Spanish Government to properly audit and oversee all works that are under judicial investigation to analyze if there have been cost overruns, budget deviations, and to hold the relevant parties accountable.
The Andalusian President, during a moment of the question time in the regional chamber.
Youth, the present and future of our society
Moreno referred to the youth, whom he defined as the present and future of our society, and therefore urged all institutions to be aware and sensitive to their problems, needs, and aspirations.
«This Government listens to them and has policies to help them. We act in many areas, trying to create opportunities for them to develop a life project.»
Regarding training, he highlighted the boost to Vocational Training with 47,522 more places supported by public funds, almost 170,000 in total, and almost 3,000 more teachers, as well as the commitment to public university with more financial resources, more investments in infrastructure, and more support for students.
As for employment and entrepreneurship, he mentioned the approval of a Youth Employment Plan with economic and social agents to mobilize almost 500 million euros between incentives for hiring, support for the most vulnerable, or assistance to municipalities, and emphasized the nearly eleven percentage points less unemployment among those under 25 years old.
In terms of housing, he mentioned the housing tax package that includes measures for those under 35 years old that result in savings of over 90 million euros, in addition to over 1,500 young people benefiting from the guarantee program for the purchase of a first home, extended to 40 years and with a 20% guarantee, and that every year over 30,000 young people benefit from the 3.5% reduction in Property Transfer Tax.
The President of the Junta reiterated the importance of continuing to work in areas such as mental health and added that Andalusia has Units for Eating Disorder, short-term hospitalization for children and adolescents, separate rooms for adults and minors in almost all community units, more professionals, and a suicide prevention program.
In conclusion, he referred to the fight against gender violence among young people and stated that the Andalusian Government has carried out initiatives such as the creation of a new specific group for psychological support for young victims aged 18-25 and continues to raise awareness through campaigns on pornography consumption, prevention of gender violence, or cyber gender violence, among others.