Canal Isabel II, parent company of Canal Gestión Lanzarote, has requested the Court to execute the sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, declared final in February 2019 by the Supreme Court, which orders the review of the award of water to this Madrid-based subsidiary and by which the contract could be annulled. This has been confirmed this Friday morning by the Court's Communication Office.
After the Efe Agency reported on Thursday morning that Canal Gestión Lanzarote asked the Administrative Court number 3 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to comply with the final judgment that required determining whether or not this contract should be annulled, Canal Gestión issued a press release denying that it had requested that execution. However, the Court has confirmed "up to two times" that Canal Isabel II has made that request.
The ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands was later declared final by the Supreme Court in February 2019, as La Voz exclusively reported, despite the fact that, at that time, San Ginés hid the judicial resolution for three months.
This ruling described the action of the Water Consortium as "controversial" and concluded that there were "surprising alterations" between the initial tender and the negotiated procedure by which the contract was finally awarded in 2013 to Canal Gestión, during the presidency of Pedro San Ginés (CC) at the head of the Cabildo of Lanzarote. These "controversial" alterations were "for the benefit" of Canal Gestión.
Likewise, already then, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands warned that "this controversial action" by the Consortium will "very difficultly overcome the obstacle posed by the opinion of the Advisory Council", which must issue a report during the contract review process.
Since its entry on the island, Canal Gestión Lanzarote has accumulated operating losses of 64 million euros. In addition, as La Voz has advanced, the subsidiary of Canal Isabel II has been considering transferring control of the integral water cycle on the island to another company.
In the event that the contract is annulled, the Madrid-based company, in addition to ceasing to provide services, could request to be compensated for the money it has invested in Lanzarote during these twelve years.
The intervention of San Ginés
The ruling derives from a procedure initiated by the company Club Lanzarote, which filed after the former president of the Cabildo Pedro San Ginés (CC) ordered the intervention of the desalination plant that the company has in Montaña Roja (Playa Blanca).
The first ruling is from October 2016 and was unfavorable to the company, but the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) revoked it in November 2017 and the Supreme Court rejected the appeals for cassation.
Subsequently, Club Lanzarote and the Cabildo reached an agreement on the desalination plant and the company waived its right to request the execution of the ruling on the water cycle contract.
In May 2018, the then president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, assured in plenary that the ruling no longer had effect because Club Lanzarote had waived it. In that same year, the Water Consortium insisted that the procedure was exhausted because there was no "who urged it to be executed".
