The mayors of San Bartolomé, Isidro Pérez; of Tías, José Juan Cruz Saavedra; of Haría, Alfredo Villalba; and of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, have defended in a press release that they have forced the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and of the Water Consortium, Oswaldo Betancort, to transfer official information about the assignment of the contract for the integral water cycle, after "weeks of secrecy, misinformation and absence of institutional communication" about a decision of enormous importance for the island
Given "the gravity of the situation and the lack of transparency", the four mayors have requested the urgent convening of an extraordinary Consortium, which will take place on Thursday morning, with the objective that the president formally accounts for the scope and consequences of this operation.
The mayors have denounced that they have had to "learn relevant details through third parties, specifically from information from the Assembly of Madrid and publications in various media, instead of having been informed directly and officially by the Consortium itself, which represents a serious breach of the duty of transparency towards the city councils that are part of it".In this regard, one of the aspects that generates "greatest concern" for the four mayors is that "the assignment of the contract includes the so-called litigation rights, which implies that the company that assumes the concession could also acquire the capacity to exercise legal actions or continue judicial proceedings linked to the contract, with possible economic consequences that could affect the Water Consortium and, therefore, the set of public institutions of Lanzarote".
This circumstance introduces "an evident risk to the general interest, as any resolution derived from these lawsuits could have an economic impact on the public water management system, compromising public resources and the balance of the service", they have indicated
The mayors have underlined that "it is unacceptable that a decision of this magnitude has been managed for weeks without proper information to the members of the Consortium, forcing municipal representatives to force the convening of an extraordinary body in order to exercise their institutional responsibility".Likewise, they have reiterated that the management of the integral water cycle demands "the highest level of transparency, rigor, and responsibility, and they have warned that the future of an essential service cannot be compromised without guaranteeing complete information and the institutional respect that the municipalities and citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa deserve".
