Neither a report on the state of conservation and possible pathologies of the property, nor a study on the works necessary to convert it into a museum. A year and two months after the Cabildo made the controversial purchase of the house on Fajardo Street, for which it paid 1.6 million euros, the opposition continues to demand reports on the state of the property and on the works that are going to be undertaken, and which, according to the announcement made at the time, should have already been completed.
After requesting these documents again in the last Plenary Session, the PIL accused the president, Pedro San Ginés, this Thursday of "hiding" these reports because "he is not interested in them being made public". The party recalls that it already requested these documents eight months ago and has still not received them today.
Regarding the report to study the possible pathologies derived from the age of the property itself and to be able to correct them, the PIL points out that it was "supposedly prepared", but has not been delivered to the opposition. According to a statement, the response from Historical Heritage was that "the definitive pathology study is currently being processed by the Official Eduardo Torroja Institute, in coordination with the Tragsa entity, an organization that has been entrusted by this Corporation, among others, with the tasks of drafting the restoration and museum projects". In this regard, the PIL adds that "eight months later, the reports are still being processed".
The same happens, according to the party, with the study to establish "the measures that are necessary to transform the Fajardo property into museum facilities", for the announced Archeology Museum. "Heritage repeatedly alleges that it is also in the processing phase," says the PIL.
"The reports should have been done before the purchase"
Faced with this situation, the party denounces that "the supposed rehabilitation works are being carried out without the Plenary of the Cabildo knowing, eight months after having requested it for the first time, the content of the previous reports on the state of conservation of the property", which also "should have been done even before the capricious acquisition of the aforementioned property for museum use".
In addition, the PIL once again questions the "idyllic but misguided" decision to acquire this property. This refers to the sentimental relationship that the president, Pedro San Ginés, had with the daughter of the owners when the Cabildo bought the house. After the controversy broke out, San Ginés then declared that the relationship he had was "supervening" and that it began when the Corporation had already decided to make this acquisition.
At the time, the PIL also denounced that the Cabildo was going to pay for the house even more than what the owner asked for in the first appraisal she provided. Specifically, the institution bought the house for 1,650,000 euros, which is 117,174 euros more than what the owner requested.
"He lies and uses technicians to cover up his decisions"
"In his day, Pedro San Ginés already demonstrated that he had no problem lying and using technicians to cover up his misguided decisions, as he seems to be doing again now with the concealment of these previous reports," says the PIL, which assures that it is still "surprised by the version of the president of the Cabildo, after having tried to take refuge in the Head of the Historical Heritage Service to try to make the people of Lanzarote believe that the decision to acquire the property came from this department". "Almost nothing here is by chance, as the president of the Cabildo likes to say lately, nor was it a coincidence that the person in charge of the project and former Head of the Historical Heritage Service was dismissed only months after certain press conferences and statements by Pedro San Ginés", insists the party.
In addition, the PIL criticizes the failure to meet the planned intervention deadlines on the property and denounces "the waste in the cost of this purchase", which "has already increased to 1,905,293.77 euros, when the property cost 1.6 million, and it remains to be seen what the investment will cost to give it a museum use". In this regard, he recalls that "the president assured in February of last year that the project would be done in six months and its restoration would be ready in the following six months", but "14 months have already passed and neither the Plenary of the Cabildo nor its councilors, representatives of the citizens, know the reports on the state of the building and the current works".
Therefore, they consider that the "patent inaction and negligence of a president who, in another display of personal protagonism at the expense of public resources, did not hesitate just two weeks ago, to put on the white helmet and take the photo in the, apparently recently started, works of the idyllic property" is demonstrated. Specifically, in that visit the Cabildo announced the works in two lateral naves, which they are enabling to, among other things, carry out temporary exhibitions "until the global project is executed in the central building".
As the Cabildo itself explained in a statement, they have allocated 414,000 euros only to the conditioning of these two "lateral spaces". The works were commissioned to Tragsa, which is the same company in charge of the project to intervene in the house and transform it into the archaeological museum.
