The Councilor for Festivities of the Arrecife City Council, Echedey Eugenio (Coalición Canaria), spoke this Thursday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero to clarify whether the institution owes 1.28 million euros in pending invoices to one of the largest supplier companies of the council.
The company Preventos Media is in charge of lighting, sound, and also the production of events for different institutions on the island. Among them, it has been in charge of the Carnivals, Christmas festivities, and the production of the Lava Fest, which has brought artists such as Camilo and Manuel Turizo, among others.
"Sometimes there are customs that when an invoice is presented, it must be paid as is, and when the invoice is not correct, it must be rectified. We are talking about public money and there must be control of what is done, how it is done, and that what has been requested is effectively being invoiced," Eugenio begins in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote.
The Councilor of Coalición Canaria assures that from the Festivities area "there are only two pending invoices, not 100, two big ones and some small ones." Echedey Eugenio adds that "one is pending for the supplier to change it," and the other "is true that it had a delay." At the same time, he defends "that the rest has gone well."
"I understand that the information is given by the supplier to put pressure, to collect faster and I can understand everything. What I can say is that in the Treasury area there is not that volume of invoices," he maintained during his radio intervention.
Echedey Eugenio estimates at "almost 200,000 euros" the money pending to be paid to the company Preventos Media, "which is still money, the supplier has to collect, but among other things, one has to rectify it." However, he does not know how much money is pending in other areas of the council. "The invoices arrive at the Treasury when they are going to be paid, but I do not see the management in the areas," he explains.
In addition, the head of Festivities does not see future contracts with this company in danger, which is in charge of the assemblies and the stage of the events that are held in a good part of the island of Lanzarote. "We have a contract and the City Council is obliged to pay and the supplier is obliged to comply with it," he points out.
"An invoice has deadlines, the average payment term to suppliers in the Arrecife City Council is 15 days when the invoice is correctly conformed, if the procedures in the area have not been done, I cannot control that," says the councilor.
"When the invoices are ready on the 1st, they are paid on the 15th, when they are on the 16th, they are paid on the 30th. There is a signed contract that the parties have to comply with," he concludes.
In addition, he attributes this situation to the fact that the supplier wants to "charge for the work done," but justifies that it is also "legitimate for the City Council to ensure that the money that is paid is what we really have to pay."
On the other hand, Eugenio assures that in the Festivities area there is an invoice in which the supplier and the technicians of the council do not agree. "As I told the supplier himself, if you say that you put it and the technician says no, then you will have to go to court and let the judge say effectively if that is what has to be paid," he explains.
Finally, he also confesses that the council is still working on the preparations for the Arrecife festivities in honor of San Ginés. "As of today, the San Ginés concert is not yet closed and it seemed reckless to announce something that is not closed," Eugenio pointed out.
However, the Councilor for Festivities assures that the Colombian artist Sebastián Yatra "is one of the options" and that they are already in the period of "negotiating exclusivities with the producers. Yes, it is one of the options we are working on, but it is not yet closed."
