The former CEO of Inalsa, Plácida Guerra, and the former company manager, Rafael Elorrieta, have refused this Tuesday to testify before the judge. The two had been summoned to testify as defendants, within the new case investigating the management and bankruptcy of Inalsa, which is directed by the Court of Instruction number 4 of Arrecife. The case was denounced by Alternativa Ciudadana, which is present as a popular accusation and believes that there will be new accusations within the procedure.
Guerra and Elorrieta were supposed to answer questions this Tuesday about the alleged "corporate, prevarication or embezzlement of public funds" crimes that the Prosecutor's Office accuses them of. However, both have refused to do so, alleging that they had been notified with little time. The summons of these two former Inalsa officials was known 11 days ago, on November 6.
It was a complaint from Alternativa Ciudadana that led to this judicial investigation. The formation presented that complaint to the Prosecutor's Office last legislature, shortly after the management of water on the island was privatized and a good part of the money obtained in that privatization was used to pay off the company's debts. The politicians who intervened in the last boards of directors could have had to personally answer for those debts.
"Verified irregularities" and "possible crimes"
The complaint was transferred by the Prosecutor's Office to the Courts last May for proceedings to be opened, since it appreciated "verified irregularities" and indications of possible crimes in the management of the former public company and also in the way its debts were paid. The judge then called the first two defendants to testify and also requested various procedures to investigate various stages of Inalsa's management. According to AC, some of the procedures focus on the privatization process of Inalsa and on the "alleged illegality of the transfer of Inalsa's debt to the Water Consortium to facilitate that privatization and the concession of the integrated water cycle to the company Canal de Isabel II".
In addition, the Prosecutor's Office also requested in its complaint that it be verified "if the final destination of the amounts invested by Inalsa in repairs effectively had that destination, through the control of invoices, work orders and personnel who executed them", verify if there are "unjustified items or expenses" from 2006 onwards and also ask the Consortium for the administrative acts that motivated the decreases and increases in the price of water in 2003-2004 and 2007.
Regarding Elorrieta and Guerra, it should be remembered that both have already been convicted once for their work in Inalsa. Both were involved and were subsequently convicted in the events of one of the pieces of the Unión case. This is about the payments to Francisco Rodríguez Batllori for services not provided. The Provincial Court sentenced them to 5 years in prison each, for a continued crime of prevarication and another of embezzlement of public funds.