President Oswaldo Betancort has convened the Assembly of the Lanzarote Water Consortium, an entity in which the Institution and the seven town councils participate, for September 4, after having received the preliminary and conclusive report commissioned a few months ago to analyze the level of compliance with the concession contract to Canal Gestión Lanzarote for the water supply, sanitation and reuse services on the island and in La Graciosa.
“After learning its conclusions, I appear to announce what measures we will take after the technician, the current person in charge of the contract, has made it clear in her conclusions that there have been very serious breaches of the essential obligations of the contractor in recent years, facts that could lead to the initiation of the contract termination procedure with Canal Gestión”, the president stated in his declaration.
“It had to be this government group that commissioned such an in-depth analysis, which in detail exposes technical arguments that conclude that the breaches are of such gravity that they would motivate the adoption of drastic measures against the concessionaire, in a responsible exercise of control of the service and in the effective defense of its users. We are facing a report that, although preliminary, is clearly conclusive regarding the diagnosis”, Betancort clarified.
And he added: “This is the first complete report available to the Cabildo of Lanzarote that reveals the overall situation of the contract with Canal Gestión, since we found that the Lanzarote Water Consortium had only formulated some requirements and opened sanctioning files in the previous term, some of which ended in penalties, but most are lost in the courts or were left unfinished”.
The president of the Cabildo and the Consortium has also clarified that, “in any case, I want to convey and emphasize that the supply service will not be affected by this administrative procedure opened to the concessionaire of the integral water cycle”.
"Decision making"
The preliminary report details breaches of the essential obligations stipulated in the Particular Administrative Clauses, and therefore very serious infractions. The document observes irregularities in the payment of fees and also breaches in the Services Exploitation Plan and the Service Organization and Management plan offered by the awardee, among others.
The highest authority of the Island Institution has reiterated that he will not hesitate to take “the necessary and appropriate decisions, whatever they may be, given that the causes stated in the report are very serious and forceful”.
"Another way of managing public affairs"
Regarding the work done, Oswaldo Betancort has stated that “today we obtain the answers we were looking for. From silence, which is how best to work, and from rigor, which is the correct way to make decisions... Time has been given to study in depth the situation in which the concession contract with Canal Gestión Lanzarote was and the degree of compliance”. And he has also stated that any future action will be protected by rigor in the management of public affairs and in the responsibility towards the citizens.
Therefore, he has recalled that the obligation of the Lanzarote Water Consortium is the renovation of infrastructures and will continue along that path, he commented before confirming that there are currently about 120 actions in the form of projects and works that the entity will face now with renewed tools, because it has just modernized its Statutes and appointed a prestigious professional from the sector with decades of experience in the Canary Islands as its new managing director.
“From the beginning of this term we were clear that we had to make a clear diagnosis given the chaotic reality we found in this entity. We will continue to make decisions to change things and provide solutions to the population. We don't want more of the same for years”, concluded the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
