Four "essential services" of the Cabildo in matters of social care had been provided "irregularly", with payments each year of millionaire sums by the Corporation without even a contract. This was revealed this Tuesday by the current president, María Dolores Corujo, who announced the agreement adopted this Monday in the Governing Council to initiate an official review of those awards made under the mandate of Pedro San Ginés, which only had a "verbal contract", despite being "categorically prohibited" in public administrations.
In this regard, Corujo has read reports from the legal services of the Cabildo on each of these four verbal contracts, which conclude that they are "null and void", so the procedure to annul them must be initiated, and then the service must be put out to tender. For just one of them, the Corporation paid more than 4 million euros in 2017 and more than two million in 2019.
The four services affected, managed by different associations and entities -Adislan, AFA, Iscan Servicios Integrales and the Fundación Respuesta Social Siglo XXI-, are the shelter for unaccompanied foreign minors in La Santa, the service for attention to disability, the adapted transport service for the transfer of elderly and dependent people to Day Centers and various services for the care of the elderly and Alzheimer's patients. However, the presidency has stressed that they are not the only ones that have been found in this situation.
"A style of governing where the will of the position prevails over the norm"
"The issues I have reported on are not an exception and there are more similar situations in which the Cabildo faces the payment of different services without the appropriate contracts in force. This situation, beyond the abnormality it implies, is indicative of a style of governing, of a way of managing in which the will of the position prevails over the norm," said the presidency in the press conference offered to announce the agreements adopted in the Governing Council.
"We have found a Cabildo in which administrative procedures suffer from an unjustifiable fragility, with inadequate processing circuits and with a lack of reports that reveal an absolute disregard for the quality of the procedures," Corujo questioned in reference to the management of her predecessor in office, Pedro San Ginés.
"The quality of the procedures allowed us, in other times, to win all the disputes filed by the Cabildo or that were filed against it. Today, this Cabildo has lost respect and loses procedures almost before entering the courts. This lack of control, unfortunately, is reflected in situations of extraordinary importance," the president stressed.
Contracts expired since 2013
In her appearance, Corujo explained that a few months after taking office as President, she began to receive proposals for decrees to face the payment of the costs generated by the provision of these services, which forced her to lift objections from the Intervention, precisely because of the absence of contracts or because they had expired years ago.
In the case of the management contract of the Las Cabreras Day Center for the Elderly, signed with the Association of Relatives of Alzheimer's Patients, it had expired in July 2013 and an attempt was made to renew it in 2014, but an appeal that the Corporation lost suspended the processing and since then the service was maintained "without any legal coverage". In addition, Corujo explained that other services provided by this association are in the same situation, such as the care of the elderly at the Dr. Domingo de Guzmán Residence, the La Graciosa Day Center for the elderly and the Service for the Promotion of Autonomy.
From agreements and subsidies to the payment of invoices
As for the Association of People with Disabilities of Lanzarote (Adislan), which is "the other major provider of care services on behalf of the Cabildo", until 2018 it had been working through agreements and subsidies, "despite repeated warnings about the need to tender the services provided by the aforementioned NGO", according to Corujo, who explained that in 2017 alone, this association received subsidies for an amount of 4,023,800 euros for different projects.
Finally, since 2019 the system was changed and began to charge for services provided through the payment of invoices, but without signing any contract. During that year, Adislan received a total of 2,047,913.92 euros, based on an alleged verbal contract that the legal services of the Cabildo also conclude is null and void.
In the case of this NGO, it is responsible for the care of people with disabilities at the Residencia de Necesidad Tercera Persona, Residencia de discapacidad intelectual y Centro de día necesitad de tercera persona, Centro de día discapacidad intelectual (centro ocupacional) y Hogares funcionales.
Contracts without regularizing
Regarding the concession of adapted transport that serves the users of the Geriatric Day Hospital of the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote and the Las Cabreras Day Center, in charge of Iscan Servicios Integrales, the president has indicated that "the extension provided for in this contract expired last March without, on the part of the Service, the necessary procedures for the new award being initiated in time".
"Upon expiration, it was decided to decree the continuity of the service, in order not to cause irreparable damage to the users, but this continuity suffered from a vice: not having initiated the bidding procedure in the three months prior to the expiration," she added, specifying that the procedure to declare its nullity and tender the service will also be initiated.
Finally, the management of the shelter enabled in La Santa for the reception of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors in April 2019 was awarded directly to the Social Foundation Siglo XXI through the emergency route. However, the reports requested by the current government group indicate that beyond the emergency situation that existed at that time, after the award that should have initiated "as soon as possible the appropriate file" to "regularize the situation".
"The attention to the beneficiaries is guaranteed"
In her appearance, María Dolores Corujo stressed that beyond the procedures that are going to be initiated, "the attention to the beneficiaries of these services is guaranteed and in no case will this regularization procedure involve the total or partial suspension of the services". To this end, the Insular Governing Council has adopted the decision to declare "the urgent need for the continuity of the provision of services" while the files are being processed.
In addition, the president wanted to praise the work carried out in particular by AFAL and Adislan, "as essential collaborators of this Cabildo in the care of the most vulnerable people". "I have nothing but words of gratitude for the work they have done and I regret the inconveniences that this situation may cause them," she said, pointing out that they are not responsible for a situation generated by the previous government.
"Unfortunately, the situation I have just described is not exceptional in the sense that it is not a unique situation," the president has also insisted, anticipating that they will soon announce the situation of "several contracts signed" by the Cabildo that are "in the same case".