The former president of the Board of Directors of the Tourist Centers, Echedey Eugenio, has acknowledged this Friday that he not only worked for the Lanzarote Bus group, but that he is currently still an employee on leave of absence from this company, which during his mandate charged 640,000 euros from the Centers without a contract or public tender. "If my crime is that I have worked in a private company, well, yes. And when my political life is over, I hope to work in this or another private company, because you have to live off something," Eugenio responded, explaining that while he was a councilor of Teguise he was released part-time and continued working at Arrecife Bus, and that it was upon arriving at the Cabildo that he requested a leave of absence, because it was incompatible with his position.
In addition, he has insisted that this company already provided services for the CACT before he chaired the Council, although what Podemos denounced this Thursday is precisely that the payments skyrocketed with his arrival. In fact, they went from an average of 10,000 euros per year - which falls within a minor contract that does not require a tender - to more than 41,000 in 2015, which did require it to be put out to tender. And in the following years they exceeded 100,000 euros, reaching 249,987 in 2019, without a tender being called in all that time.
"When a mistake is made, it must be recognized. Can they accuse us of being slow in the tenders or of giving priority to other tenders than this one? That's right. Now, for this lady to come and insinuate that there have been crimes and so on, I will not allow it," Eugenio responded to the councilor of Lanzarote en Pié Sí Podemos, Myriam Barros. "You cannot insinuate that this is a consequence of me working in the company before," he questioned, warning Barros that "maybe the one with a problem is her" if she does.
"I'm not justifying my actions"
"We were doing different tenders for different contracts with what that entails. In my time, specifically 41. Is it true that the issue of the buses was delayed? It is true. Was the hiring illegal? It is not true. And if they understand that it was illegal, let them go to the Court, but do not denounce only Echedey Eugenio. Let them also denounce Loli Corujo for the eight months in which she has done the same," the former councilor claimed, referring to the payments that have had to continue to be made to Lanzarote Bus since the departure of Coalición Canaria from the government of the Cabildo.
However, the new government group has already put this service out to tender. "It has gone out to tender with the specifications that we left prepared," Echedey Eugenio responded in this regard, who, however, did not specify when those specifications were finished and why they did not call the tender. "I am not justifying my actions. I am saying that just as I did it, this Government has done it in these months," he responded when asked again about that delay of years in putting the service out to tender.
"I understand that things, although they could have been done better, have not been done badly from the point of view of legality," defended the former councilor, who also denied having responsibility in those payments, despite the fact that he was the president of the Board of Directors of the Centers. "I have the same responsibility, the same or none, as any member of the Board of Directors, whether it's Carlos Meca, Benjamín Perdomo or Marcos Bergaz, because I was in that body just like everyone else. From there, I don't understand why they talk about some and not others," Eugenio pointed out again, charging again against the councilor of Podemos for having made this issue public.
"I was not aware of the volume that this service could have"
In addition, the current spokesperson for CC in the Arrecife City Council has repeatedly stated that he "was not part" of the contracting bodies of the Centers. "I don't know the Coca Colas that are ordered in the Castle of San José or in the kitchen of Jameos," he has even stated, even assuring that he was unaware of the turnover of Lanzarote Bus. "I got an idea of the volume when they passed that documentation to the Board of Directors," he assured, maintaining that it was this week when he learned the figures, when Podemos requested them. However, now he affirms that he has done accounts and "divisions" and that "it costs 200 and something euros what is charged per day for the bus, for its driver and fuel." "I don't think it's an exaggerated price, but I was not aware of the volume that this type of service could have," said the former president of the Board of Directors of the CACT.
Regarding the fact that budgets were not even requested from other companies, as Podemos denounced, Eugenio has avoided confirming it, but he has not denied it either. "Who says that? Mrs. Myriam? I was not in the Center when a bus was requested, but I understand that budgets were requested," he responded. "So there were other offers?" he was asked. "I am not a contracting body," he replied again, thus suggesting that not even after learning of Podemos's complaint would he have tried to find out what happened under his management in the CACT.
Regarding why buses were not purchased when two of the Centers' buses were out of service - given that he alleges that this is why Lanzarote Bus began to be paid more for the rental of vehicles - Eugenio has justified it by pointing out that they had a project to have electric and autonomous buses in Timanfaya. However, that project was presented in 2018, when one of the buses had already been out of service for two years and when since 2015 the payments to this company had begun to multiply.
