The appointment of Jorge de la Guardia as island director of Employment and New Technologies of the Cabildo, agreed in the Governing Council last February, will go to trial after a complaint from the councilor of Ciudadanos, Benjamín Perdomo, and another from the Association for Professional Public Management of the Canary Islands. The Contentious-Administrative Court number 5 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria already set a date in March for the oral hearing after Perdomo's complaint, setting it for July 11, but 20 days ago the Cabildo requested the "accumulation" of both procedures, as they were in different Courts.
In his lawsuit, which was filed with the Court on February 28, the councilor of Ciudadanos in the Cabildo denounced that the agreement of the Governing Council by which De la Guardia was appointed as the new island director of Employment after the resignation of Feliciano Díaz, would be "null and contrary to law, because the appointment was carried out "without the principles that guarantee publicity and competition".
In addition, Benjamín Perdomo highlighted that "the circumstance that makes it more blatant and contrary to law is the fact that this position of island director of Employment was already subject to public competition, under the principles of publicity and competition, along with other island directorates such as Social Welfare, in 2016, making a merit assessment and employment list".
However, he stated that, not knowing why, this list and appointments had been "rendered ineffective, resorting to a direct appointment of a person who did not even apply at the time, without respecting that employment list". "They should have called the next person on that list to take office, that is, the number two at the time, with the Cabildo of Lanzarote itself now going against its own actions," he argued in the lawsuit.
A "legal fiction" created to "circumvent the law"
Likewise, the councilor of Ciudadanos denounced that the figure of "senior official" of island director of Employment and New Technologies was introduced in the appointment proposal, a figure that he assures "does not exist in the organic regulations of the Cabildo" and that, in his opinion, is "a kind of legal fiction" that they have created "to mask" what "is actually an island director". A new denomination that he considers they are using "to circumvent the law", a "product of the most twisted legal engineering", since he points out that "the figure of the advisor is already foreseen for direct appointments of personnel".
In addition, in his lawsuit, Benjamín Perdomo highlighted that the transformation of the positions of island director from the condition of professional manager to island director of senior position was taken to the Cabildo plenary session on January 31, one day before the appointment of Jorge de la Guardia. Specifically, this initiative was approved with the votes in favor of the government group and the abstention of the opposition.
The lawsuit of the councilor of Ciudadanos against the appointment of the island director of Employment and New Technologies of the Cabildo was admitted for processing on March 11 by the Contentious-Administrative Court number 5 of Las Palmas, who ten days later set July 11 as the date for the oral hearing. And it is that, although Benjamín Perdomo had requested that the appeal be ruled "without the need for a hearing", the Cabildo did request its celebration, "considering it essential, in order to have a greater possibility of clarifying the facts and contributing possible witnesses or experts, as well as the existence of reports within the file of special evidentiary importance".
The association requested precautionary measures
However, Benjamín Perdomo was not the only one who denounced the appointment of Jorge de la Guardia as island director of Employment and New Technologies of the Cabildo. The Association for Professional Public Management of the Canary Islands also filed a lawsuit, in this case on March 12, considering that it "violates several legal precepts". In it, he also asked that the appointment be annulled as a precautionary measure.
"Firstly, it ignores the obligation to follow procedures with publicity and competition for the appointment of management personnel," says the group, which points out that it also "disregards the general system of legal reservation of management positions in favor of career civil servants of subgroup A1, without complying with the requirements to except such general reservation so that it can be occupied by personnel from the private sector".
In addition, according to the Association for Professional Public Management of the Canary Islands, "there is a failure to carry out prior fiscal control of the administrative act of appointment" and "the obligation to motivate the act is not fulfilled".
This procedure, however, was being followed in another Court, specifically by the Contentious-Administrative Court number 2 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and, in view of this, the Cabildo requested the accumulation of both on May 2, a request that the Justice resolved one day later giving the parties a period of five days to formulate allegations on the appropriateness or not of the accumulation.
Curriculum Vitae
The appointment of Jorge de la Guardia was taken to the Governing Council at the proposal of the Presidency, which considered "necessary" the designation "of a Senior Official Island Director to contribute to the management of the matters that concern him", as stated in the appointment proposal. It also stated that Jorge de la Guardia "has a Degree in Geography and Spatial Planning and that his curriculum vitae sufficiently accredits his training, competence and professional experience" and that "therefore he meets the necessary profile for the aforementioned position".
However, in the curriculum vitae of Jorge de la Guardia that appears in the file and to which La Voz has had access, regarding his work experience, it is only recorded that he worked as a leisure and free time monitor in a summer camp for 21 days in July 2017; as a hiking guide for an association, for one day, in May of the same year; and that he carried out external internships in the Area of Environment, Territorial Sustainability and Water of the Cabildo of Tenerife from March to May 2014.
It should be remembered that the Department of Employment and New Technologies of the Cabildo was in the hands of Manuel Cabrera until last January, when he decided to leave the government group and move to the opposition. Subsequently, Pedro San Ginés delegated this area to the councilor Juan Manuel Sosa, although this delegation did not occur until last April, two months after Jorge de la Guardia was appointed as island director.
