The celebration of the Teguise City Council plenary session ended in a brawl last Wednesday and two councilors left the room minutes before the session ended. The discussion began in the questions and answers phase, during the intervention of the spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Teguise City Council, Marcos Bergaz, regarding the problems with the company in charge of cleaning schools, sports centers and other spaces in the municipality.
Bergaz spoke at the end of the session to urge the Teguise City Council to control the cleaning tender, which is in the hands of Aema Hispánica SL after having renewed its contract last July, and thus avoid the current problems suffered by public spaces in the town. In addition, he stated that "if the company is guilty, which will be determined by a file, it should also be accompanied by the initiation of a file with the prohibition of contracting".
The socialist stressed that we must try "that companies that fail to comply with contracts and fail to comply with the conditions of workers, are prohibited from contracting with the City Council." The mayor, Olivia Duque, replied "that this is already all planned, that we have very competent technicians in the City Council".
A technical report from Teguise already acknowledged that the municipal facilities "do not have a perfect hygienic sanitary condition", that "the methods and frequencies of cleaning" are not being met and that the company's workers had not received their payrolls in the established times.
The socialist assured during his speech that "it was already known that this company was breaching" the contract and that "many anomalies were known" before the tender was renewed. At that moment, the mayor Olivia Duque (Coalición Canaria) interrupted him and asked him to finish with the request. The nationalist criticized Bergaz for stating that the consistory already knew the situation and accused him of making "false accusations".
In addition, Bergaz urged the Government Group to guarantee in the following specifications that the companies that submit are not only chosen for economic criteria, but that it is ensured that they comply with the cleaning conditions and the rights of the workers.
Duque responded to Bergaz that "if you are so concerned, avoid making that type of comment. It is hard to believe that a person with the training you have, which I value very much, is trying to deceive the residents by saying what you are saying. You know perfectly well that if the administration is not aware in writing of the situations that were being experienced from the previous specifications, there was no record. It was this Government group that asked the workers to send us in writing what is happening".
In the midst of the commotion, the councilor of Primero Teguise, Jonás Álvarez, and the one of Nueva Canarias, Fernando Jiménez, left the session. "When the argument started, I felt embarrassed. [...] the reality is what it is", Jiménez confessed this Thursday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero and asked "why can't we debate?", in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote.
"He is lying when he says that we did not know that the company was mistreating the workers since the previous year", he stated, "many of us knew, it was on the street, that the delays were significant, that they did not get paid before the 15th and that in May, June and July they stopped getting paid for some months". Thus, the councilor of Nueva Canarias states that if the City Council itself was aware of the delays and had to deliver cleaning materials to the company so that it would comply with the contract "don't tell me that when making a new tender that company is solvent".
