The New Canaries councilor in Arrecife, Armando Santana, was not informed by his government partner that the millionaire payment for the Ginory land was going to materialize, which he believes could have been avoided.
“In the end, it is a decision made by the mayor of Arrecife herself. If you ask me if I, as mayor, would pay, the answer is no. There are other alternatives,” defended Santana, who states that he was not consulted either.
“I didn't know. I saw that order later,” he assured on Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero. According to what he explained, he found out at night, after seeing the press release that the PSOE had sent to the media, in which they denounced that payment of more than 22 million euros and stated that it had been done “secretly”.
“We were quite worried and we met with the spokespersons of the PP and the Canarian Coalition and with Eli Merino, who also did not know about the payment, to see what was happening,” he said. Regarding that meeting, he only pointed out that “a series of explanations were given”, although he did not say that they convinced him.
“We are in a four-way pact and I believe that things have to be agreed upon. This is a decision made by the mayor, it is something she wants to carry out and time will tell if she was right to execute this,” added the NC councilor.
However, he also recalled that a month ago the payment was approved at the Governing Board, of which he was no longer a part, with the favorable vote of Eli Merino and the PP and with the abstention of the Canarian Coalition, as a new government partner.
“I have not handled this issue nor have I been involved in the management of the payment, but of course I would have liked to know that it had already been ordered. I am in a government group and this is something very serious,” Santana insisted.
Awaiting the commission of investigation
Regarding the commission of investigation that will finally be launched in the City Council and that he himself will chair, Santana states that it will begin to “take shape” after the Christmas holidays. “Starting next Monday we will sit down”, he advanced.
In that commission, the intention is to investigate everything that happened with that land and with the judicial procedure, in which the City Council did not even ask for the ownership of the land to be accredited, and did not appeal the valuation either.
“Ástrid Pérez herself is worried, because this is a problem that we are eating, but it is something that we have absolutely nothing to do with. This comes from past legislatures,” Santana stressed, who hopes that the commission of investigation “will be productive” and serve to “give transparency” to everything that has happened.
