The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) has denounced before the Las Palmas Prosecutor's Office an alleged crime of misappropriation of material that was ceded by the Cabildo of Lanzarote to the Traffic Detachment of the Civil Guard through an agreement signed in February 2014. According to the AUGC, the agents of this unit of Arrecife "have never seen" that material, but the Civil Guard assures that "it was received" and that it was "distributed among the three islands" of the province and that "it was withdrawn shortly after because it became obsolete."
In its complaint, the AUGC asks the Prosecutor's Office to investigate whether the first sergeant of the Traffic Detachment of the Arrecife Unit who signed the agreement with the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, could have incurred a "criminal offense" in the event that "he had finally received that material" which, it is stated, was valued "at just over 1,700 euros."
Specifically, as stated in the agreement signed between both institutions and recalled in the complaint, "the use was granted free of charge" of four Olympus cameras valued at 239.80 euros; two tablets for the installation of bases and programs for downloading tachograph data, whose total value amounted to 967.50 euros; and three vehicle power chargers, valued at a total of 254.85 euros. In addition, according to the agreement, measuring tapes valued at a total of 114.68 euros, four briefcases to put the material in and carry it on motorcycles, whose total value amounted to 51.40 euros; and four DNI readers, valued at a total of 75.20 euros, were also delivered.
However, the AUGC claims to have been "informed" by "several agents assigned to the Traffic Civil Guard Detachment of Arrecife" that "they have never seen the material ceded by the Cabildo in their unit and that they have not seen other agents use it either."
Government response in which the donation is not recorded
In addition, the AUGC echoes in its complaint a response from the central Government to a parliamentary question registered on January 31, 2017 by the Cs deputy for the province of Las Palmas, Saúl Ramírez, "in relation to the amount of donations of movable property that had been made to the Civil Guard in the Canary Islands, broken down by year, island units and specialty."
The question, according to the complaint, was answered by the Government on May 17, 2017 and, according to it, "the Civil Guard has only received two donations from the Canary Islands, one in 2013 and the other in 2016, both in favor of the Civil Guard of the island of Tenerife." Specifically, as La Voz has been able to verify, the Government's response exclusively states that two computer equipments were donated for better citizen service to the Civil Guard Post of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 2013 and a computer equipment for the same purpose to the Civil Guard Post of Adeje in 2016.
"The director general of the Civil Guard is the authority who, by delegation, can accept donations of movable property that are made in favor of the Civil Guard, because this is established by Order Int/985/2005, of April 7, which delegates certain powers and approves the delegations made by other authorities," adds the AUGC, which points out that "taking into account the above, and the donation referred to not having been accepted by the director general of the Civil Guard," it brings "such facts" to the attention of the Las Palmas Prosecutor's Office in case the conduct of the first sergeant who signed the agreement "constituted a criminal offense," specifically in the event that he had received that material."
The material was to be used for "joint" actions with the Cabildo
Although the Cabildo of Lanzarote has not confirmed to La Voz whether the institution actually delivered the material, the Civil Guard has stated that it was "received," but has pointed out that "it was withdrawn shortly after because it became obsolete."
In addition, the Civil Guard has indicated that "it was distributed among the three islands" of the province, although the agreement signed between the Cabildo and the Civil Guard stated that the transfer of material occurred after the Traffic Detachment had "requested" it and that it was carried out to "facilitate the performance of joint actions between the Inspection Service of the Transport Area of the Cabildo and the Special Traffic Unit of the Civil Guard in Lanzarote in matters of Land Transport."
In fact, the agreement stated that "the Special Unit of the Traffic Detachment of the Civil Guard in Arrecife" undertook "to allocate these elements to the joint inspection actions that it carries out together with the Inspection Service of the Transport Area of the Cabildo."
