The Ombudsman, in response to a letter from Pedro San Ginés, has informed the Cabildo that he has archived the complaint he was processing against the Island Water Council for its "inactivity in the illegal sale of water to third parties and, in addition, at prices higher than established" in Montaña Roja by Club Lanzarote. However, in the letter he sends to the president of the Council, Pedro San Ginés, the Ombudsman also makes it clear that he is not commenting on the seizure of the plant, highlighting that the law "prevents" him from commenting on issues "pending judicial resolution".
Despite this, the Cabildo sent a statement to the media this Thursday informing of the Ombudsman's decision and linking the end of that investigation to Pedro San Ginés' decision to seize the desalination plant. "The Ombudsman argues in his writing that 'the cited complaint is archived by solution' based on the fact that the Island Water Council complied with the requirements made by the Ombudsman in accordance with Resolution number 078/2014 which, among other measures, resolved the precautionary measure of the seizure", says the Cabildo's statement verbatim.
In this way, he argues that Jerónimo Saavedra has archived his complaint because, with the resolution that, among other things, ordered the seizure, the Council ended the inactivity that was being investigated. That is not, however, what the Ombudsman's writing says, which in its last point clearly specifies: "We cannot assess the specific measures adopted in resolution 78/2014 of the Island Water Council for two reasons: the first, the complaint of the citizen promoting it did not have that object; the second, at this time they are being audited by the courts of justice and, given that article 26 of Law 7/2001, of July 31, of the Ombudsman prevents this Institution from investigating and commenting on matters that are pending judicial resolution".
It thus states that the archiving of the complaint has nothing to do with the decision to seize the plant. The Cabildo's statement, however, omits this last clarification and limits itself to quoting that the Ombudsman "proceeds to archive the cited complaint by solution" and that the Council "has exercised the competence that corresponds to it by acting on the problem denounced in the complaint". That statement also does not explain that Jerónimo Saavedra's writing actually responds to a letter that San Ginés sent him. In that letter, dated October 20, the president requested the Ombudsman to inform him "if the measures adopted in the aforementioned resolution (78/2014, which ordered the seizure) were aimed at complying with the requirements made by the Ombudsman".
"We do not assess whether the administrative acts are the ones that correspond"
In this sense, sources from the Ombudsman's office have stressed to La Voz that they are not commenting on the seizure and that this precautionary measure is never mentioned to argue the resolution. "Of course not. We cannot take part, we say that he exercises his competence and acts with the illegal sale of water to third parties, which is confirmed", they point out. "We do not assess whether the administrative acts (adopted for this) are the ones that correspond", they add.
In fact, they point out that the complaint is archived because the Council has ended its "inactivity", not by seizing the plant, but by initiating "administrative actions". But the Ombudsman does not assess these actions, which may include aspects such as opening a file or that just a few weeks ago the procedure was initiated to extinguish Club Lanzarote's permit to desalinate water in Montaña Roja, as published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands on October 9. These same sources underline in this sense that the Council should have "exercised its powers a long time ago".
That publication in the BOC included a decree signed by Pedro San Ginés on September 25, more than a year after seizing the plant. The procedure was started in this way to extinguish the permit that the Council granted to the company in 2004 for the "expansion of the seawater desalination plant", and which had a validity of 8 years. After that time, Club Lanzarote requested an extension, but the Council did not respond. According to what was argued, the extension had been denied "by administrative silence" and therefore Club Lanzarote lacked authorization.
This statement, however, has been refuted by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, which annulled the seizure, and by the sanctioning file that the Council itself opened on the same day that the plant was seized. The file concluded that the authorization was still in force and Club Lanzarote could produce water. To terminate the authorization, in case of non-compliance, a file should have been opened and the company given a hearing, something that did not happen. Despite this, one of the arguments that San Ginés used to defend the seizure was that Club Lanzarote lacked authorization to produce water.
