The resolutions proposing, agreeing to, and executing the controversial seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant were adopted in just 48 hours and without a report from the secretary of the Corporation. This is what the complaint filed by Club Lanzarote states, for which the president of the Cabildo and the Water Council, Pedro San Ginés, and the managers of the Council and the Island Water Consortium, José Juan Hernández Duchemín and Domingo Pérez Callero, will have to testify before the judge this Friday. The complaint was admitted for processing by order of the Provincial Court, which saw indications of a crime in these events. Furthermore, in another procedure, the TSJC has annulled the seizure, since, among other things, it was executed without a court order.
In its complaint, the company also reveals that on the same day that he signed the resolution ordering the seizure, Pedro San Ginés had personally assumed the powers to do so, which were delegated to another councilor, who at that time held the Vice Presidency of the Water Council. "There is no reasonable administrative explanation for the president to have assumed the powers that same day," the complaint states, which also considers inexplicable "the haste and urgency with which each and every one of the resolutions and actions are carried out, as if there were a danger to the general interest, when the situation in those days was the same as it has been since 1988," since Club Lanzarote launched the desalination plant to supply that Partial Plan of Montaña Roja.
"The background of this administrative frenzy is due to the patent will or whim of the president and the manager of the Council to replace my client with the concessionary water entity of the island of Lanzarote, Canal Gestión Lanzarote, when there is no cause for such substitution," the complaint states, which considers that "the most elementary rules of respect for private property were infringed."
From Duchemín's report to the seizure
The proposal to open a sanctioning file to Club Lanzarote was formulated by José Juan Hernández Duchemín in a report dated September 16, 2014. A day later, on September 17, San Ginés issued a resolution initiating the sanctioning file and also ordering the seizure of the desalination plant and the rest of the facilities, owned by Club Lanzarote, as a precautionary measure. In the file, there was only talk of three possible minor offenses and one less serious offense. At that time, Club Lanzarote was awaiting a request that it had submitted asking to extend the authorization it had to operate the desalination plant and the treatment plant, but the Council never responded.
After San Ginés' resolution, Hernández Duchemín issued another to transfer the seized infrastructure to Canal Gestión, responsible for water in Lanzarote after the privatization of Inalsa under the mandate of San Ginés. In addition, Duchemín agreed to "notify the resolution" to the Water Consortium and Canal Gestión, so that they could take possession of the desalination plant and the treatment plant of Club Lanzarote. Thus, on September 18, 48 hours after the first proposal was issued, the manager of the Consortium, Domingo Pérez Callero, went to Montaña Roja together with operators and agents of the Local Police. And without judicial authorization, without carrying out a "prior inspection" to verify the "alleged facts" and without having previously notified or obtained authorization from the company, he accessed the facilities by forcing the entrance and breaking the padlocks.
For that action, Club Lanzarote directs its complaint against Domingo Pérez, in addition to San Ginés and Hernández Duchemín. In the case of Duchemín, he is also accused in the Stratvs case and investigated in another case for the alleged incompatibility of positions he holds in the Cabildo (in addition to being attached to the General Secretariat, he was manager of the Water Council -until he resigned from the position shortly after that investigation was opened- and also performed functions for the Security and Emergency Consortium and for the Tourist Centers). And all this despite the fact that, according to what he himself declared in the Courts, he only has "Baccalaureate and COU" studies.
"Masking an illegal expropriation"
"They unduly seized private property, ignoring all the foreseen procedure, with the ultimate aim of transferring it to Canal Gestión," Club Lanzarote denounces in its complaint, in which it maintains that "the only intention was to mask an illegal expropriation." Among other things, it insists that the sanctioning file was not even completed nor was the interested party heard, as the courts have also confirmed, by dictating precautionary measures annulling the seizure and ordering the plant to be returned to Club Lanzarote.
In the two judgments of the TSJC that have first annulled the seizure and then the transfer of the infrastructure to Canal Gestión, the court insists especially that the measure was adopted without a court order to protect it. But in addition, it also emphasizes that no law contemplates a seizure as a possible precautionary measure within a sanctioning procedure.
For its part, Club Lanzarote also points out that the seizure was authorized and executed "without technical-legal reports that supported the serious measure adopted." In this regard, it should be remembered that San Ginés has reiterated that these reports exist, although so far he has not made them public or delivered them to the opposition, despite the fact that formations such as Podemos have been requesting them for weeks.
"It is significant that the secretary was not asked for a report"
Pending knowing those reports, and if they are really prepared by officials of the Corporation, what Club Lanzarote maintains in its complaint is that a opinion was not requested from the general secretary of the Corporation, who as a national habilitation official "has the function of mandatory legal advice attributed." "It is very significant that the precautionary seizure of a company is adopted without asking the secretary for a prior legal report," the complaint underlines.
In fact, in addition to requesting the citation of San Ginés and the two managers as defendants, Club Lanzarote has also requested that the secretary, Pancho Perdomo, as well as employees of the company who were present when the seizure was executed, testify as witnesses.
"The president overrides the private property of Club Lanzarote so that the same situation is maintained in terms of water supply, which is essential in everything that is being dealt with, even if the actors change," the complaint maintains, which insists that "the seizure does nothing more than modify the commercial entity that carries out the supply.". Therefore, it considers that "the purpose is none other than to appropriate the private facilities" of Club Lanzarote.
In this regard, the complaint argues that if what was wanted was to "end the private distribution" of water and personally assume the service, the administration had "two options." One, "undertake an investment in its own treatment plants and distribution network." The other, "initiate an expropriation procedure of the Club Lanzarote facilities, after a legal declaration of the public utility of its measure, with the appropriate procedures, including a hearing with the interested party and, of course, with the payment of a fair price."
