Dimas Sarmiento, Councilor for Citizen Participation: “With this, the different entities provide programs and actions to energize the neighborhoods”
Alejandro Marichal: “It is necessary to update the 2005 Subsidy Regulatory Ordinance, adapt it to the current social reality and stop them being granted 'at political discretion'”
The Department of Citizen Participation of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council, with the aim of establishing a close relationship of collaboration with neighborhood associations, parishes, socio-cultural and sports clubs, has awarded subsidies in the amount of 220.589 euros, corresponding to the year 2023. With these subsidies, explains the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Dimas Sarmiento, “the different entities provide programs and actions to boost the activities to be carried out in the different neighborhoods of the municipality.”
In total, there are 20 entities that have received the contributions that will serve to cover the expenses of the activities carried out by them during 2023. In this sense, Sarmiento clarified that although the Neighborhood Associations have allocated this money to various socio-cultural activities carried out in the neighborhoods to which they belong, others, such as the Dancing Together Sports Club, received the subsidy to launch an integration project for people with disabilities, as well as for minors at risk of exclusion, generally coming from unstructured families and who in They are currently served by the Social Work Unit through the Childhood and Family program, ProInfa.
The different Associations proceeded to receive and sign the agreement in a meeting in which the first deputy mayor, Alejandro Marichal, also participated, who told them that this type of subsidies (nominative) will no longer be granted through this formula since are governed exclusively by political criteria, "the objective is for associations to request them through competitive competition so that they are granted in a more transparent and democratic way, leaving behind granting subsidies 'by hand' as has been done until now." now,” explained the first deputy mayor.
For this reason, Marichal explained, "it will be necessary to review and update the Municipal Subsidies Regulatory Ordinance, created in 2005, and adapt it to the current social reality, which differs greatly from that of 20 years ago." The final objective will be to have two types of subsidies, one intended for the daily operation of the associations, and another specific for the projects they want to launch. Thus, the mayor of Citizen Participation adds that "it will be necessary for all associations, groups and entities of a socio-cultural nature to participate in the drafting of said Ordinance, given that it will be necessary to know the needs and realities they face in the time to energize or project programs in the localities where they operate,” Sarmiento concluded.
