The PSOE of Lanzarote has denounced a "new failure" in the management of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers under the responsibility of Ángel Vázquez, after the installation of air conditioning in Montañas del Fuego, awarded for close to 500,000 euros to a Galician company, cannot function normally because "the center's electrical installation does not support the necessary power."
The counselor of the socialist group in the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Benjamín Perdomo, criticized that "half a million euros have been allocated to an action without previously checking if the center could technically assume it." For the PSOE, this episode reflects "a way of managing based on improvisation, uncontrolled spending and the absence of planning."
“We are facing a situation difficult to explain: 500,000 euros are invested in putting air conditioning in one of the most important tourist centers in Lanzarote and, when it is launched, it turns out that if the dishwasher is turned on, the air must be turned off. It is the perfect image of the lack of control with which Ángel Vázquez is directing the CACT,” Perdomo pointed out.
The socialist counselor stressed that this is not a minor incident, but a large investment that should have had all the guarantees before its award and execution. “An action of this amount cannot end up depending on whether or not there is enough electrical power to keep the service operational,” he stated. “Ángel Vázquez must explain how an action of half a million euros was awarded without guaranteeing that Montañas del Fuego could keep the air conditioning and the rest of the basic services running at the same time. It is a clear example of improvisation with public money,” he added.
Perdomo recalled that the PSOE had already recently warned that the uncontrolled spending of Oswaldo Betancort's government is compromising the results of the CACT, despite the fact that the public company exceeds 50 million euros in revenue. “The Centers earn more than ever, but manage worse than ever. Restoration loses more than eight million, external contracts are multiplied, private advice is increasingly resorted to and now we find investments of half a million that do not work as they should,” he noted.
The PSOE also frames this new episode in "a chain of questionable decisions in the CACT", such as the so-called octopus festival, which the socialists already criticized for considering that Ángel Vázquez "imported a festival from his hometown to Lanzarote, with public money and without a clear fit in the strategy of the Centers of Art, Culture and Tourism".
Perdomo concluded by demanding "seriousness, control and responsibility" in the management of the CACT. "The Centers of Art, Culture and Tourism are the heritage of Lanzarote and a fundamental piece of our economy. They cannot continue to be used as a political showcase while poorly planned decisions, soaring expenses and increasingly worrying results are chained together," he concluded.