The Prosecutor's Office considers that the mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz Saavedra, may have committed a crime of malfeasance by ceding a public square to the Oasis Gran Casino in Puerto del Carmen. The events, which were reported last year by the PP, date back to May 2005, when the mayor signed an agreement with a private company through which the Tías City Council granted this space to install a terrace-bar.
According to the PP in a statement, the prosecutor in charge of the case has a document showing that José Juan Cruz Saavedra awarded an administrative concession for the exploitation of a "public domain property" for six years, located in the middle of Avenida de las Playas.
In this way, no bidding or public tender was held to award this contract, which should have been decided in a plenary session, since the agreement exceeded four years in duration. However, it was the mayor who awarded this project, without discussing it previously in a plenary session, according to the PP. And all this, despite "knowing perfectly the legal procedure for granting the Administrative Concession of that square.
In addition, the agreement set the payment to the City Council of a fee stipulated at 30,000 euros per year for the use of this square. However, the Oasis Gran Casino, according to a technical report from the Municipal Treasury, did not pay this amount of money, so the Tías City Council did not collect the 120,000 euros corresponding to said agreement. Likewise, the municipal treasurer assures in her writing that she was not aware of the agreement made between the Consistory and the private entity, so, according to a report, this agreement was unilaterally signed by Cruz Saavedra with Oasis Gran Casino.
"The Tías City Council has lost its values"
The PP, from the opposition, brought these facts to the attention of the Prosecutor's Office to "guarantee transparency in the operation of the Tías City Council". The PP councilor in Tías, José Francisco Hernández, has insisted that "it is necessary to supervise and control the municipal government group so that its management and behavior is exemplary", although he points out that in this Consistory "those forms and values have been lost".
"As of today, the Tías City Council is among the five most indebted city councils in the Canary Islands, and the PSOE has allowed Puerto del Carmen to lose its attractiveness and tourist charm", he criticized.
For this reason, the PP has requested that the Justice decide on this case, which "may lead to a disqualification penalty of between seven and ten years for the mayor of Tías", in the event that the Prosecutor's accusation prospers and he is convicted of malfeasance.
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[Cruz Saavedra defends his innocence and claims that the prosecutor "does not have all the information"->26495]
