ACN
The Plenary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands unanimously approved yesterday a non-legal proposition (PNL) in which the regional Chamber urges the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and New Technologies of the Canary Islands Government to carry out an investigation analyzing the complaint submitted to the public tender for the allocation of power to new wind farms.
The Socialist deputy, Gloria Gutiérrez, the proposing party of the PNL, recalled that the public tender for the allocation of power in the modality of installation of new wind farms is "under the shadow of suspicion." According to Gutiérrez, this was generated after a complaint was filed with the police and the Special Prosecutor's Office for the Repression of economic crimes related to corruption, in which it is stated that on August 5, prior and privileged information about said tender was provided, through email and a senior official of the Ministry, to a company in the sector.
Gloria Gutiérrez maintained that given the "seriousness" of the reported events and the possible damages that may be caused to those interested in the tender, to the Public Administration itself and to the credibility of citizens in the proper functioning of public powers, it is convenient to carry out that investigation.
The PSC-PSOE deputy also denounced that the tender bases were provided from the Ministry to a private company, in exchange for "commissions of around 30,000 euros", for which she estimated that the PNL is necessary to "guarantee transparency and political management, as well as the free competition of all public tenders."
Gutiérrez stated that the socialists are aware of the delay in the application of wind energy in the Canary Islands "which already exceeds 10 years", as she detailed that if in 2005 some 516 megawatts of wind energy were expected, currently there are only 137 megawatts. However, she asserted that this delay should not prevent a rapid and rigorous investigation "in which the questions of how many companies could supply the wind turbines, or why the geographical locations of greater wind power were not prioritized, among others, are answered."
The PSOE deputy expressed that this commission should be carried out because if not "we run the risk of suspension of the tender, as it would generate chaos if a sentence annuls this tender within 5 years, for example."
The deputy of the Popular Parliamentary Group (PP), Manuel Fernández, reproached the socialist deputy for addressing an alleged problem of corruption in the awarding of some wind farms. In his opinion, "it is absurd" that the regional Chamber investigates possible defects of a tender order because he maintained that "if it is an error of the tender, it must be corrected or challenged."
Likewise, he accused the PSC-PSOE of "bad intention" and of confusing public opinion with this issue. Fernández described as "very serious" the imputation of crime that Gutiérrez made that the tender bases were facilitated in exchange for 30,000 euros, because -he specified- "it has not yet been investigated" and in any case it would be a crime and not an object of investigation. "Then we would be wrong about the place, since that matter should be dealt with in the courts," Fernández clarified.