Members of the PP and people linked to the party placed 'by hand', payments of at least 1.4 million euros for works that were not actually carried out and a debt of almost one billion euros while profits were distributed among the partners. These are some of the issues being investigated in the Community of Madrid with respect to the public company Canal Isabel II, which is the parent company of Canal Gestión Lanzarote.
During the commission in which these events are being studied, the name of the company's former manager on the island, Gerardo Díaz, also came up. According to the digital newspaper elespañol.com, by Pedro J. Ramírez, the company itself pays the lawyer for Díaz, who was arrested in Operation Tosca. This case investigates alleged corruption crimes, such as embezzlement and bribery, in the awarding of contracts to Hispanagua, which is another subsidiary of Canal Isabel II, of which Gerardo Díaz was the general manager before coming to Lanzarote.
The general manager of Canal, Adrián Martín López, confirmed before the Madrid commission that the company's insurance pays the lawyer for Gerardo Díaz. According to this executive, Díaz is being investigated "for defending Canal's interests" and is a "presumed innocent". In addition, he assured that after dismissing him in his day, he received "for the first time a letter signed by 200 workers showing their opposition to the dismissal".
According to elespañol.com, these signatures were collected when Gerardo Díaz was removed from his position as financial director of Hispanagua, although it should be remembered that in Lanzarote, the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, 4 mayors and 200 workers of Canal Gestión also signed a letter requesting the reinstatement of Gerardo Díaz. If these are different signature collections, the same situation would have been repeated on two occasions.
In Lanzarote, Díaz was dismissed from his position on October 15, eight months after his arrest and indictment in Operation Tosca, which is investigating him for events that occurred in Melilla. However, he continues to work in the Canal Isabel II group. In fact, at the time the company assured that the change was only due to an internal "restructuring".
Suspensions of 3 months of employment and salary for a millionaire payment
According to El Español, Gerardo Díaz denied his involvement in the contracts investigated by Operation Tosca, in which he remains charged. He even claimed to be "the person who detected them from his position at Hispanagua". It should be noted that the company itself acknowledges that it paid 1.4 million euros "for unfinished works" to Joca Ingeniería y Construcciones S.A., as highlighted by this commission opened in Madrid.
This information is also echoed by the newspaper Público, which emphasizes that Canal de Isabel II limited itself to sanctioning with a suspension of employment and salary of three months to the workers who are considered responsible for that millionaire and unjustified payment.
After listening to the statement of the current general manager of Canal Isabel II, Adrián Martín López de las Huertas, the PSOE and Podemos accused him of knowing and not reporting to the Prosecutor's Office the payment "for unfinished works". In addition, both parties have criticized that the company has not taken any action to recover that money delivered to Joca Ingeniería y Construcciones S.A, which is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. Specifically, they question that Canal has not even appeared in that bankruptcy proceeding to recover the money from taxpayers, given that it is a public company.
"The head and deputy head of department were only suspended from employment and salary for three months and the other technician, who had a lower position as works director, was directly dismissed from the company", denounced the socialist deputy of Madrid Pedro Santín, questioning the company's attitude towards events of this seriousness.
At least twenty people linked to the PP
The other line of investigation into Canal focuses on the hiring of friends, relatives and former officials of the Popular Party. According to El Español, before becoming a public limited company in 2012, the company had an article in the collective agreement that allowed 1% of Canal's hiring not to be done by competition or any other open selection process, despite being a public company.
According to the Podemos Group in the Assembly of Madrid, at least 20 people linked to the party that governs and governed in the community would have started working in the company. Among them are relatives of Esperanza Aguirre, Ignacio González and other officials of the Popular Party or people linked to Caja Madrid and its black cards, such as Pablo Abejas; or to Bankia, such as Álvaro de Ulloa y Suelves, who was managing director of Canal de Isabel II until this Tuesday, when according to the newspaper Público he has submitted his resignation.
To all this is added the economic situation of the company, which currently has a financial debt of 975 million euros. Although the company's executives argue that "it is a low debt compared to the largest water management companies in the world", the opposition deputies in Madrid question that Canal has distributed profits among its partners in the form of dividends. Specifically, it would have delivered 482 million euros to the Community of Madrid and the associated municipalities, of which the largest, with 10% of the capital, is the City Council of Madrid.
Canal landed in Lanzarote in 2013, when it took over the integral water cycle on the island. The award was made through a negotiated procedure, under the presidency of Pedro San Ginés, after the initially convened tender was declared void.
