"There is no need to worry about the payment yet." This is how the Councilor for Economy and Finance, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, has stated about the judgment revealed by the PSOE that has condemned the City Council to pay about 800,000 euros as a refund of the Tax on Constructions, Installations and Works (ICIO) charged for the licenses of a hotel that was never built, as its license was annulled by the courts in 2007. And it is that, although the judgment is final, the City Council is litigating for said condemnation to be compensated with a debt that the City Council claims from the company, according to the councilor.
"We are claiming 1.2 million from them for a capital gain they owe to the City Council," said Jiménez, who stated that, after learning of the judgment, which was issued on December 19 by the Contentious-Administrative Court number 4 of Las Palmas, the City Council already contacted the court to request said compensation, with which even the City Council would come out winning as the debt it claims from the company is greater than the money the City Council has been condemned to pay.
In addition, the Councilor for Economy and Finance of Teguise has responded to the PSOE candidate for Mayor, Marcos Bergaz, stating that "it is untrue" that the government group "has hidden the judgment." "Especially because when the City Council is condemned, the technicians and the secretariat department immediately register the judgment and it goes to the legal department," he pointed out.
"But also, when we were talking about Caleta de Caballo, I was asked what judgments the City Council had pending and I always mentioned the pending trial with the issue of Inalsa's water, the pending judgments with the issue of the PRUG of Famara and two administrative procedures related to the same thing," added Miguel Ángel Jiménez, who pointed out that one of them was the one related to the judgment that was revealed by the PSOE.
"Bergaz forgot to say that we won a judgment of 1.2 million"
"They are licenses given in the year 99 if I remember correctly, but they were annulled by the court in 2007. And there were two judgments, one for 1.2 million and this one for 800,000 euros, but Mr. Marcos Bergaz forgot to say that the City Council won the one for 1.2 million," the Councilor for Economy and Finance of Teguise also reproached the socialist. "But in turn, Mr. Marcos Bergaz forgot to say that this company was claiming an exaggerated amount of money from us and that the City Council also won. And, in addition, it is not only that, it is true that we have lost the judgment, but it is also true that there are debts on the part of the company with the City Council," he added, in relation to those 1.2 million that the City Council claims from the company for capital gains.
"And look, if every time we receive an administrative procedure of any kind, whether it is a judgment or such, we had to go out in the media, we would be in the media every day and we would not work in the city councils, because the entry of documentation is continuous. But the good thing is that it is alive, that any party or individual person who is involved in any procedure can come and take it," replied Miguel Ángel Jiménez, when asked about why the City Council did not make the judgment public.
Accuses the PSOE candidate of "confusing" the citizens
In addition, the Councilor for Economy and Finance has questioned the "intentionality" with which the PSOE candidate made the news public and has accused him of "confusing" the population. "Because he names the skeletons and what do they have to do with this judgment? The skeletons are one thing and the works that were going to be carried out for this future hotel are another," said Miguel Ángel Jiménez, who also insisted that they are procedures prior to the current government group. "None have been ours and we have tried to solve them and most have been solved normally," he added.
"I think they are confusing, that they are being confused, but it is logical. Because we are in an election period and the only way he has to discredit Oswaldo Betancort is to take out this type of news. This is the game of politics that must be assumed," he concluded.