The San Bartolomé City Council has agreed in the extraordinary Plenary session held this Monday, October 28, to initiate legal actions and file a contentious-administrative appeal against the agreement adopted by the Island Government Council of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, with the aim of claiming the more than 500,000 euros of FDCAN funds that "correspond to the municipality".
The mayor of San Bartolomé, Isidro Pérez, pointed out that the decision was made with the abstention of Coalición Canaria and the vote against the Partido Popular and pointed out that the reasons why the Government of the Cabildo formed by CC and PP "take half a million euros" from the residents of San Bartolomé are “totally incongruous, lacking in technical and legal rigor.”
In this regard, the mayor detailed that the reasons alleged by the Cabildo in the agreement adopted by the Island Government Council in a session held on September 12, 2024, by which it rejects the appeal for reconsideration filed by this City Council are that the amount of the work project called “Urban Intervention in Constitución Street” which amounts to 888,660.72 euros, exceeds the amount assigned to the San Bartolomé City Council, which is 611,975 euros, and therefore said project was replaced by another project called “De Molina a Molina”, with a budget of 500,661.82 euros, requesting the City Council for another project, for the difference that amounts to 111,313.18 euros, to reach the total financing that corresponds to this municipality (611,975 euros).
In that sense, he highlighted that the project called 'De Molina a Molina' cannot be financed with the funds (EDUSI) of the Feder, because the deadline for the execution of the Sustainable Urban Development strategy (EDUSI) of the FEDER had ended on December 31, 2023, according to communication received from the Ministry on September 2, 2023, and the administrative contract for work signed between the company Transportes y Excavaciones Tiagua and the Cabildo in its capacity as awarding administration is dated January 10, 2024, which is why it was included for financing in the FDCAN Funds.
“When the budget of a project for which financing is requested with charge to the FDCAN 2023-2024 funds exceeds the amount that corresponds to a city council, it is not a reason to reject the financing, and even less without granting the mandatory hearing process, because in these cases it is a firm and consented habitual practice, which does not prohibit the regulations governing said funds, that the excess amount is financed by the city council with charge to the city council's own resources, financing the amount that corresponds to the city council by the FDCAN, that is, 611,975 euros,” defended the mayor.
On the other hand, Pérez denounced that “it is not a cause attributable to this City Council that the Cabildo, alleging Christmas reasons and due to its lack of interdepartmental communication, has formalized the administrative contract for works awarded to Transportes y Excavaciones Tiagua S.L. on January 10, 2024, when this project has been in the possession of the Cabildo since 2022.”
In addition, the mayor denounced the omission of the hearing process expressly recognized by the Cabildo in the agreement adopted on September 12, 2022 by the Island Government Council, because “the jurisprudence of the contentious-administrative chamber of the Supreme Court affirms that the motivation involves informing the recipient of the act and for general record, the reasons that support its meaning. The motivation is not fulfilled with any conventional formula, on the contrary it must be sufficient.”
Isidro Pérez highlighted that, “if there had been diligent action on the part of the Cabildo, formalizing the contract awarded to Excavaciones Tiagua for the execution of the work project called “De Molina a Molina” before December 31, 2023, this project would have been financed with charge to the Funds (EDUS) of the FEDER, while with charge to the FDCAN funds the project called Urban Intervention in Constitución Street would have had financing up to the budgetary amount of 611,975 euros, this amount being assigned to this municipality, contributing the difference of 276,685.72 euros with charge to the City Council's own funds, in order to cover the entire budget of said work, which amounts to (888,660.72 euros).”
“The reason why the community intervention project on Constitución Street does not have FDCAN financing is solely and exclusively attributable to the Cabildo,” the mayor lashed out.
“As mayor and representative of the residents of San Bartolomé, we have the obligation to defend their assets and rights and if this entails taking legal action to protect what is ours and corresponds to us, we will do so,” concluded Isidro Pérez.
