The deputy spokesperson of the nationalist group (CC-PNC) in the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, insists that the Tourist Centers have a debt of almost five million euros. The nationalist contradicts the version of the president of the Cabildo, Dolores Corujo, and the CEO of the Centers, Benjamín Perdomo, who claim that the payments are up to date.
In a press release, the nationalist party insists that the Tax Agency has uncovered a millionaire debt. Among which are almost 800,000 euros of interest and surcharges. "Despite the fact that in 2022 the Cabildo eliminated the fee from the centers and reduced it to zero euros," the statement insists.
In a document attached by the party, the fees charged to the Tourist Centers from 2004 to 2021 are collected. According to this file, for example, the payment of the 2018 and 2019 fee is postponed until 2024.
In a press conference offered together with the also nationalists Migdalia Machín and Samuel Martín, San Ginés accuses the government headed by Dolores Corujo of deceiving the Board of Directors of the CACT and also the plenary session of the Cabildo. As well as "having invented" in the budget report a "false" agreement of the Tax Network that Corujo denies, according to San Ginés. This alleged agreement would have decreased the debt by 2.6 million euros.
The nationalist councilor also criticized the level of resources and allegations of the CEO when he opposed the payment of the fee. In a document attached to the press release, the statements of the CEO of the CACT are collected, who classified as "surprising, amazing and manifestly illegal" that the Treasury Area and the Autonomous Island Organization of Tax Management of Lanzarote liquidated the payment of the fee of the Tourist Centers in the writing of opposition to the office of initiation of liquidation of the debt.
As San Ginés has demonstrated before the media, Benjamín Perdomo, in addition, considers that the exploitation of the CACT should be free for the EPEL and, therefore, does not have to pay anything, opposing the liquidation of the 2020 fee (document 4) and 2021 (document 5) (he does not oppose the 2022 fee because it is zero euros and neither does the 2023 fee because he has not yet been required); alleging, among other reasons, the nullity of full right of the liquidation of the Tax Network, due to incompetence and absolutely disregarding the legal procedure (document 6), requesting the inadmissibility of the fee to the CACT. "That is why he has been deceiving the citizens, assuring that he was up to date," the CC-PNC spokesperson stressed.
"It is convenient to clarify that although the Government wants to take us to the debate about whether the bases of execution of the Budget are the appropriate instrument to establish the fee or not, the truth is that the PSOE approved and shared this formula, not only on multiple occasions when it co-governed with CC in the two previous terms, but now, with CC in the opposition, it has used exactly the same procedure to establish the fee in the budgets of 2019, 2020, 2021 and days ago approved the 2023 fee with the same procedure; fee and debt that Benjamín Perdomo denies exists and, of course, refuses to pay," said Pedro San Ginés.
For her part, Councilor Migdalia Machín stated that "what is not acceptable is that after almost two decades of paying a fee for the Cabildo to undertake social policies, under governments of all political colors CC-PP-PSOE and PODEMOS, it now turns out that the obligation of the Tourist Centers to revert their benefits to the island society through the Cabildo is questioned."
Likewise, Samuel Martín, who is also the representative of the Nationalist Group in the Board of Directors of the CACT, emphasized that "what is truly serious is that the CEO, on the one hand, has publicly denied that there is debt in the form of a fee, while in reality, he has filed an administrative litigation against the Tax Network and the Cabildo of Lanzarote itself and its bases of execution."
The nationalist group reiterates that if Dolores Corujo publicly maintains that the CACT do have to pay a fee, against the position of Benjamin Perdomo, "the only thing that fits is the immediate dismissal of Benjamín Perdomo, unless the decision to sue the Cabildo was shared by the Presidency, in which case what would proceed is his own resignation."
Therefore, the nationalist group doubts whether Benjamín hid from the Government that he would file an administrative litigation for the liquidation of the debt and, therefore, it is a unilateral decision or if that litigation is a decision shared by the Government against its own acts, that is, the bases of execution of the budgets of the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.
Finally, Pedro San Ginés insisted that Dolores Corujo and Benjamín Perdomo "lie more than they speak" in relation to the inherited debt and the fee paid. "Neither in 2014 was the debt 18 million euros as Benjamín says (it was 3.2 million inherited from Carlos Espino and paid that year under the mandate of CC), nor much less was there a debt of 10 million euros with the Cabildo in 2019, as Dolores Corujo already said then."