The Nationalist Group (CC-PNC-SP) in the Cabildo states that "after finally, after several attempts and requests from the opposition groups," the plenary session on the San Ginés festivals was held this Wednesday, it has come to the conclusion "that PSOE and PP have used the festivals of the people of Arrecife as a bargaining chip to secure the seats of María Dolores Corujo and Ástrid Pérez in the two main institutions of the island".
"It has been demonstrated that the island's president, María Dolores Corujo, lied when she said at the time that the money invested by the Cabildo in the Arrecife patron saint festivals was a loan that the City Council had to return", said the deputy spokesperson for CC, Pedro San Ginés.
And it is, according to a statement, "the president herself stated this Wednesday", during her speech, that "the immediate return of the money was not the Cabildo's objective", but "she neither denied nor confirmed that it was finally a loan, as she has stated on several occasions".
An "administrative mess"
Likewise, CC states that "the head of the Contracting Area, Marcos Bergaz, insisted that it is not the first institution that has to assume the more than 250,000 euros corresponding to the cost of light and sound but the Arrecife City Council, thus contradicting what was assured by Ástrid Pérez in the extraordinary plenary session held in Arrecife". In this regard, CC states that "this expense, the largest of the entire festival, has no contract or legal coverage, neither in the Arrecife City Council nor in the Lanzarote Cabildo".
In CC's opinion, "it has also not been clarified during this morning's plenary session why more than double and triple was spent in some cases, of the cachet of the artists who performed, simply stating that the Cabildo limited itself to processing what it received from the City Council". In other words, "the Cabildo did not even check or contrast the figures requested by the City Council". "It simply released public money without asking for explanations", said the CC councillor, Samuel Martín.
The nationalists consider that "the administrative mess is of such magnitude that, while on the one hand, the mayor claims not to know anything about this agreement, which she learned about through the press, delegating all responsibility to the Socialist Party and the Lanzarote Cabildo; on the other hand, the Cabildo, its president and the councillor responsible for Contracting, also disclaim responsibility for the election and negotiation of the cachets". "A function that, according to the Cabildo, corresponds to the City Council, by virtue of an agreement that does not exist for the City Council itself", they add.
"Has not clarified absolutely anything"
For CC "what has become clear is that Arrecife did not submit the agreement signed by Mª Dolores Corujo and José Alfredo Mendoza to the Governing Board, and that is why Ástrid Pérez does not recognise this agreement, which is neither audited nor has a report from the secretary". "As if this were not enough, the agreement ratified by the Cabildo Government Council, whose secretary is Ángel Vázquez (PP), is one that was supposedly signed by the capital's mayoress, Ástrid Pérez", the nationalists assure.
"The Government, which boasts so much about transparency, has played at misdirection, as it has accustomed us to, but has not clarified absolutely anything. All the interventions have been contradictory and we still do not know exactly whether it is a loan that Arrecife has to return or lost funds from the Lanzarote Cabildo, who will pay the costs of light and sound or why exaggerated overcosts have been paid in some of the cachets", said Samuel Martín who, in addition, asks "why the other town councils do not enjoy the same privileges as Arrecife".
The nationalists wanted to emphasise that "at no time has there been any assessment of whether the festivals have been good or not, whether they have been expensive or not or whether they are the festivals with the largest budget in recent years". "We have only demanded and will continue to demand that things be done well, because the only thing that has become clear to us is that the City Council did not audit the festivals and the Cabildo swallowed what was sent to it. In other words, we are glad that the San Ginés festivals came to fruition but not in the totally irregular way that they were done", they emphasise.
And it is that, the Nationalist Group affirms that "no matter how much Marcos Bergaz insisted that everything had been done correctly, the truth is that the document in which, in the absence of the mayoress, the deputy mayor of Arrecife (José Afredo Mendoza) is authorised to sign the agreement by which it is assumed that both institutions acquire a commitment to guarantee the development of the festivals, but that Ástrid Pérez never recognised", is still missing.