The Commercial Court number 1 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has upheld the request of the bankruptcy administrators of Inalsa and has ordered the seizure of "assets and rights" of 17 public officials of the island, who were part of the last two Boards of Directors of the public water company, chaired by Inés Rojas and Manuela Armas, respectively.
Eight members of the first Board of Directors must respond with properties worth almost two million euros (1,914,730.50 euros), corresponding to half of the "deficit" generated in Inalsa in 2007, when elections were held and a new government group entered.
For their part, the nine members of the second Council must respond for a much larger figure. In addition to facing another 1.9 million euros, corresponding to the other half of the deficit generated in 2007 (which in total was more than 3.8 million euros), they must also respond for the increase in debt in 2008. However, that figure, which could also be in the millions, is still pending calculation, as the bankruptcy administration states that the accounts have not yet been provided.
This precautionary measure, which can be appealed to the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, is intended to provide a guarantee of collection to the creditors of the public water company, in case the bankruptcy process ends up finding responsibility in the administrators of Inalsa.
Reasons for the embargo
In the order, the judge points out that "there is sufficient information in the files of the bankruptcy process to reach provisional and indicative conclusions" that indicate that the bankruptcy could end with the qualification of "culpable".
Among other things, the judge emphasizes that the administrators of Inalsa should have requested the entry of a bankruptcy proceeding much earlier, since the company was insolvent since the end of 2006. In this regard, he clarifies that Inalsa's accounting makes this clear from December 31, 2007, but argues that if "the sentence for the arbitration award" of the Janubio desalination plant, which condemned the company to pay about 10 million euros to the UTE Edam Janubio, had been properly accounted for, the causes of dissolution of Inalsa would have been evidenced since the end of 2006.
In addition, the judge considers that the management of the administrators worsened the economic situation of the company. On the one hand, due to their "inactivity in the face of the situation of continuous water losses in the supply networks, reaching losses of up to half of the water produced." On the other hand, by "not adjusting the rates to the cost of the service." In this sense, he points out that by not facing the increase in the price of water, they caused a "chronic deficit" in the company. However, he also points out that perhaps the increase in rates could have been avoided "through a more efficient management of the company", reducing the cost of the service.
Seventeen public officials
For the first semester of 2007, the following will respond as members of the Board of Directors: its president, Inés Rojas, as well as Mario Pérez, Sergio Machín, Rafael Martín, Aquilino Romero, Manuel Fajardo Palarea, José Juan Cruz Saavedra and José Torres Stinga.
As for the second Council, which will respond for the deficit of the second half of 2007 and for that generated in 2008, Manuela Armas, Plácida Guerra, Juan Félix Eugenio, Carlos Espino, Enrique Pérez Parrilla, Iván Rodríguez González, José Dimas Martín, Feliciano Díaz Hernández and Antonio Barambio will be subject to embargoes.
All of them will have to respond "jointly and severally" for the amounts set by the judge, so that if any of them declares themselves insolvent or does not have properties in their name, the amount to be seized on the rest would increase.
Regarding Pedro Viera, for whom the bankruptcy administrators had also requested the precautionary seizure of assets, the judge has dismissed the request, since on January 29, 2007 he submitted his resignation as a member of the Board of Directors.
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