Coalition Canaria has accused councilor Juan Manuel Sosa of "allegedly supplanting" the spokesperson of his group before the Ministry of Health, in order to continue charging as released in the Cabildo. "It is shameful and immoral that he has been charging from Public Health for more than a year and a half, without the right and without exercising his functions as a doctor in the midst of a pandemic," they maintain in a statement.
The nationalists, who presented Sosa on their list in the last elections within the alliance with San Borondón, claim that they have now learned of this "alleged supplantation", more than a year after the councilor left his group and joined the government of the Cabildo.
"The serious irregularity has been detected by Coalición Canaria now, on the occasion of the appointment of Samuel Martín as spokesperson for the Group, also a worker of Public Health," explains the party. And the position that they gave to Sosa at the beginning of this mandate has now been left in the hands of Martín, with the intention that he could also be released at the expense of Health, relegating Pedro San Ginés to the position of deputy spokesperson.
In the case of San Ginés, he charges directly from the Cabildo as released. However, Sosa did so through Health, which is the same thing that Samuel Martín intends to do.
"Juan Manuel Sosa continues to charge from Health and not from the Cabildo of Lanzarote" and "does not meet any of the requirements for this to be the case," they say from CC, which intends to use this route for the second time to have a second released in the Cabildo.
Coalición Canaria itself recalls in its statement Law 2/1987 of the Canarian Public Function, which establishes that a worker dependent on the Ministry who holds "the condition of spokesperson of an institutional group, constituted from an electoral list that has obtained more than 20 per 100 of the votes" or "be spokesperson of an insular institutional group, constituted from an electoral list, or be the only elected councilor of a list that has contested the elections to the island councils" can be released at the expense of Health.
In its statement, the party states that Juan Manuel Sosa "lost his status as spokesperson, and therefore the right to be released by Health, on the same day that he resigned from the Spokesperson of the Nationalist Group, on December 2, 2019." Since then, CC had not expelled him from his group, which is what he has finally done now.
Asks that he return "almost 100,000 euros"
During the plenary session held this Friday, the nationalists have registered a letter in which the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, has been asked to "take action on the matter and inform the Public Function and Health of the facts so that responsibilities are purged and all necessary measures are taken so that Sosa returns to the public coffers the almost 100,000 euros, which he could have unduly charged in the last 17 months, in such delicate moments where the terrible economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has left so many people without work on the island and so much need for health professionals".
"Our obligation was to bring the suspicions about this situation to the attention of the Plenary and we understand that the president should transfer the seriousness of the alleged facts to the Public Function and the Ministry of Health, so that responsibilities are purged if there are any and, at least, everything that has been apparently charged without right is returned," says the spokesperson, Samuel Martín.
"For all these shameful reasons, the councilors of the Nationalist Group have decided to expel Juan Manuel Sosa and have asked him to have the decency to return his act to the formation," they add in their press release.
"We trust that the president will not allow the presence in her government of a person who has apparently demonstrated his lack of ethical code and his immorality, unless it has been with her knowledge and consent," emphasize the members of the CC-PNC Group, who also ask Corujo "not to continue degrading the image of the institution that she said she came to dignify and to commit radically to transparency".