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Mayor of Madrid cut down the travelling budget for local officials
Tackling the climate change is one of the biggest issues the world is facing nowadays. For that matter, there are many talks about pollution and more reasonable use of our traveling methods. Mayor of Madrid Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida has, therefore, cut the annual spendings for traveling of the city officials.
Recent research conducted by Consistory showed that, in the last year, there was a decrease in spendings for transport, accommodation and maintenance of vehicles for 70%. In the year 2020, the city paid for these services EUR245,000, while in the year 2021 this number was only around EUR75,000.
This reduction of spendings began with the Mayor Martinez-Almeida mandate. During his term, he visited only six cities, all of them located on Iberian peninsula. On the contrary, the previous mayor had 14 visits in 2017 and 18 visits during 2018. This year’s visit to the capital city of Belgium, Brussels, will mark the first voyage of mayor Martinez-Almeida outside of the country.
This strategy of reducing spending on travel is also imposed on senior officials of the government. Year 2021 marked the transition period from the pandemic and many government officials were urged to follow this strategy.
The average spending on travel on a monthly basis was also reduced, now being around EUR6,000, whereas in the previous years this amount reached EUR22,000.
In the previous period, the most expensive travels were conducted by ex-mayor Manuela Carmen, who spent EUR23,000 in the last quarter of her mandate on travel. Municipal teams with the most spendings during this period were the Employment Agency and Security area, both ranging at EUR8,000.
Now, with responsible use of the transportation sector, Mayor Martinez-Almeida is not only saving money for the city, but also promoting a more green option for the city and world. Since air travel is the most expensive one and many previous government officials used it, by reducing spending on travel he is also helping the environment and reducing pollution. (photo credit: Comunidad de Madrid/Flickr)
