"I am afraid not only that the money will not be spent, but that there will be difficulties for the work to begin this year.". This is how the Councilor for Roads and Works of the Cabildo, José Antonio Gutiérrez, has shown his "doubts" about the execution of the Mácher road, for which there are 1.5 million euros from the Government of the Canary Islands that must be spent before December 31 of this year. The item was allocated just a month ago, within the Draft Law on Extraordinary Credit of the Canary Islands, but now the Cabildo does not know if it will be able to execute it.
Gutiérrez has acknowledged on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that he "would have preferred" that "less money" be put into the Mácher road and "more into other works that are unfinished." And the councilor "doubts" that those 1.5 million euros can be spent before the end of the year on this road, given the "little problems" that exist with the expropriations and the "modification" that the initial project has to undergo.
And if they are not spent, they will be lost. The councilor has recalled that the money does not reach the Cabildo via item and is "put in a box", but that the Government of the Canary Islands allows "greater indebtedness." "Once that period is closed, no more indebtedness is allowed," Gutiérrez insisted.
The councilor has explained that, for the moment, the initial project to carry out works on this road has already been discarded, since an attempt will be made to carry out "what is absolutely essential." "It will have to be modified, which they are doing, and execute a feasible project this year, but there is little time," he acknowledged.
Gutiérrez has pointed out that he will "pressure" the Ministry of Public Works to "start the project" and to spend "as much money as possible." But, the councilor is afraid that this money cannot be used, since to this day he does not know "why the company is not already doing something there." "We will try to find out," he said, while saying that the Ministry affirmed that "they were in a position to undertake them." However, the councilor has assured that he has the "commitment" from the Government that "there will be 1.5 million euros more next year, if it is not fully executed this year."
"Possible amendments"
After the presentation of this Draft Law on Extraordinary Credit, the parliamentarian of the PSOE Manolo Fajardo Palarea offered a press conference in which he defended the amendments that, together with the Canarian nationalist group, he had presented so that Lanzarote would receive 5.3 million euros, instead of the 2.4 initially allocated. At that time, he assured that the amendments were "possible" and to be executed before December 31 "with the commitment of the Government of the Canary Islands."
He even assured that "it would be an irresponsibility and an attitude revealing political shamelessness to put items in allocations that cannot be executed." "If they were not executed, I would be the first to ask that political actions be taken against the political official who has committed the item and has not complied with it," he stated.
This Mácher road should already be finished, since the works should have started in 2011. In fact, the works were put out to tender and awarded in November 2010 to the company Lanzagrava, for almost 3 million euros. However, the works did not begin due to lack of agreement with the owners of land that had to be expropriated and later due to lack of financing.