I am often impressed by the Spanish bean-counters' accuracy on budgets. Who has not seen signs advertising some massive government project with €284,501.29 for example? Twenty nine cents! These boys are absolute geniuses when it comes to budgeting for every single nut, bolt, and brown-paper envelope.
So I was surprised to see that the accountants got their sums wrong the other day in Carrascalejo, a small village in Cáceres, and the government, quite properly, refused to pay for the entire project, here part of the PlanE to generate employment, after the estimate was found to differ from the final cost by one centimo.
The town hall had put through a highly exact estimate of €14,830.99 to repair part of the local cemetery and the final bill came to a whopping €14,831.00.
The ministry has asked the offending town hall for an immediate explanation 'to justify the increase in the money solicited from the government' and has refused to cough up the final 30% of the subsidy.
The mayor of Carrascalejo, explaining that he had 'rounded up the decimal point on the IVA' says that 'this goes to show the absurdity and inefficiency of this collapsing administration'