The Supreme Court rejected last February the appeals filed by the Water Consortium and Canal de Isabel II against the ruling that ordered the review of the water allocation in Lanzarote, but Pedro San Ginés has been hiding that judicial resolution for almost three months. La Voz has now had access to that provision, dated February 21, by which the Court flatly rejects those appeals without even admitting them for processing, concluding that they lack merit.
Thus, with this resolution, the ruling issued in November 2017 by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands becomes final, which ordered that the negotiated procedure by which the water was awarded to Canal, which is immersed in serious corruption cases, be reviewed. That ruling described the actions of the Consortium as "controversial" and concluded that there were "surprising alterations" in the specifications "for the benefit" of this Madrid-based company. In addition, San Ginés also kept that ruling hidden for almost half a year, until La Voz de Lanzarote made it public.
Then, after seeing the news published, the president came out to say that he had not reported the ruling because it was "inconsequential", although at the same time he revealed that it had already been appealed to the Supreme Court. However, what he has once again failed to report now is that this appeal has been rejected. In fact, not only has he not communicated it to the opposition groups, but he has not done so to the members of the Water Consortium either, which when the award was made was chaired by San Ginés and now by his colleague Echedey Eugenio. Nor did he disclose it in the Commission of Inquiry that was created in the Cabildo at the request of the opposition, precisely after the first ruling of the TSJC that San Ginés had kept hidden was known a year ago.
"Very difficultly will be able to overcome the opinion of the Advisory Council"
What that ruling that has now become final orders is that the Insular Water Consortium initiate a file to review that award and determine if it should be declared null, given that the court appreciated numerous grounds for nullity. In fact, the TSJC already warned that "this controversial action of the Consortium will very difficultly be able to overcome the obstacle posed by the opinion of the Advisory Council", which should issue a report within that contract review process.
Initially, the Consortium called a tender to award the water, but when it was deserted, it resorted to a negotiated procedure. And there, as the Court considered proven, the specifications "suddenly underwent various and surprising alterations" that were "for the benefit of the company that was awarded the contract." That is, the Madrid-based company Canal de Isabel II, for which the external lawyer who advised San Ginés in this process, Ignacio Calatayud, ended up working, who after the award came to collect 116,000 euros from Canal in less than two years.
In addition, for the technical evaluation of the offers, the company of a former Canal executive, Gaspar Cienfuegos Jovellanos, was hired, who is currently charged along with the former manager of Canal Gestión Lanzarote, Gerardo Díaz, and other executives and former executives of the Madrid-based company. As for the economic offer, the only valuation that exists was made by the manager of the Consortium, Domingo Pérez, -who refused to testify in the commission of inquiry created in the Cabildo- and did not even include a calculation of what the offer of the other aspirant, Gestagua, economically meant.
The contract, "radically different" from the one that went out to tender
"It is unquestionable that the Consortium ended up making a substantial modification of the governing conditions of the contract award procedure, to the point that the one actually held is radically different from the one that was the object of the initial tender," said the TSJC ruling that San Ginés hid, and that must now be executed. And it is that in this case, the fact that the complainant, Club Lanzarote, has withdrawn does not influence the execution of the ruling.
It should be remembered that this withdrawal of the plaintiff occurred as a result of an agreement that San Ginés personally negotiated, after the Justice annulled the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant and ordered the return to Club Lanzarote of those private plants that the president had handed over to Canal Gestión. Within that agreement -after which Club Lanzarote also withdrew as an accusation in the criminal case against Pedro San Gines for the seizure-, the company not only committed to renounce the disputes that it still had open for those plants, but also to withdraw from this lawsuit against the award of the water cycle. However, the TSJC ruling was issued and the case continued its course, so now there is a final judgment that is binding, as it is not a lawsuit between individuals but a matter of public order.
