The new criminal case that will lead Pedro San Ginés to testify in court next July not only investigates crimes of prevarication, but also embezzlement. This was warned by the Public Prosecutor's Office after analyzing the complaint filed more than a year ago by the still acting councilor of Ciudadanos, Benjamín Perdomo.
"The possible existence of crimes of prevarication and embezzlement of public funds is deduced within the framework of works tendered by the Island Water Council of Lanzarote and by the Water Consortium of Lanzarote in the period 2007-2011", concluded the prosecutor for Economic Crimes, Tomás Fernández de Páiz. In that same letter, the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office agreed to send the proceedings to the Investigating Court Number 1 of Arrecife, having learned that it had already opened a procedure for these same events.
That first procedure began as a separate piece of the case opened for the bankruptcy of Inalsa, which was denounced by Alternativa Ciudadana. The initial proceedings were followed in the Investigating Court Number 4 of Arrecife, but at the end of 2017 this piece was separated, which focuses on three works awarded through the Island Water Council, two of them under the mandate of the still acting president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés.
Thus, when the prosecutor for Economic Crimes -who is based in Fuerteventura- became aware of that judicial procedure, he sent his proceedings to Court Number 1 of Arrecife so that all the investigation would be focused there. Now, after several delays and the suspension of the first date that had been set for the statements, San Ginés will finally have to appear to testify as an investigated person on July 23, and along with him, the person who until a few weeks ago was the secretary of the Cabildo, Francisco Perdomo, has also been summoned.
The "irregularities" detected by the Public Prosecutor's Office
In the letter to which La Voz has now had access, and which is dated May 2018, the prosecutor describes the "irregularities" detected in different files, some prior to San Ginés' taking office and others signed under his mandate. Regarding the works awarded by the Island Water Council, he points out that "in some of the contracting files, irregularities are observed consisting of the absence of legal supporting reports of the need for the work and its extension" and in others "there is a modification of the contract without following the legally foreseen procedure for it".
In addition, he adds that "in two other different files, the existence of processing via emergency is determined without the legal assumptions for it being met", despite the fact that "all the files offer public works with a high tender price". Regarding these last two files, although the letter does not detail it, they could correspond to the works awarded under the mandate of San Ginés for more than 2.7 million euros. According to the Investigating Court, these works were awarded "eluding" the rules that should govern public procurement, using for this purpose "improperly" the declaration of water emergency that San Ginés promoted under his mandate.
Regarding the Water Consortium, the Public Prosecutor's Office also detected possible crimes in the awarding of another three works of which it does not specify the date, but which would correspond to the same period 2007-2011. In one of them, he points out that there is not even "any contract", despite the fact that invoices were paid to the contractor for a value of more than 92,000 euros. In the other two, he warns that "the specifications did not incorporate the form of valuation and assignment of scores" and that "in none of the technical reports issued were the offers of the bidders valued according to the criteria in the specifications themselves".
