The Lanzarote Water Consortium has approved this Monday to account as a subsidy the 35 million euros that Inalsa received to pay its creditors in the bankruptcy procedure, to "correct a problem created by the previous president", Pedro San Ginés. This has been explained by the government group in a statement, in which it describes as "false and unfounded" the accusations of San Ginés about the agreement that has been taken to the Assembly of the Consortium.
In a statement sent a few hours before the meeting, the former president acknowledged that there were "errors that were indeed committed in the accounting of these funds" under his mandate, although he questioned the way to resolve it by which the current president has opted, assuring that it was against what has been reported by the Intervention department of the Cabildo.
However, the government group responds that the approved agreement is based not only "on favorable reports from the Consortium's Intervention and the Secretariat", but also on an opinion from the Canary Islands Court of Auditors.
In fact, what has been done is to ratify the provision issued on January 15, 2014 by San Ginés himself, which ordered to account as a subsidy that money that was delivered to Inalsa, from the award of the water cycle to Canal Gestión. To do this, they have had to revoke an agreement that had been approved by the Assembly of the Consortium half a year before that provision of Pedro San Ginés -specifically on May 23, 2013-, which established that the direct payment of the Consortium to the creditors of Inalsa would mean a loan to the public company, producing a contradiction between what was approved by the Assembly of the Consortium (granting a loan to Inalsa) and what was executed by San Ginés (granting a subsidy).
A "contradiction" that generated "an accounting problem" for Inalsa and the Consortium
"The Intervention of the Cabildo of Lanzarote had detected this contradiction and in its Financial Control reports referring to the years 2018 and 2019 had stated that the credit granted to Inalsa in 2013 to attend to the creditors of the Bankruptcy of this company was not reflected in the assets of the Consortium," they point out in a statement. "The exception raised by the Intervention had been generated, therefore, by San Ginés himself who, against what was approved by the Assembly, accounted as a subsidy the payment to the creditors, thus generating an accounting problem for both the Consortium and Inalsa," adds the government group.
Faced with this situation, he explains that "various reports were requested and, finally, a consultation was made to the Canary Islands Court of Auditors in which the opinion of the autonomous body was requested on whether the discrepancy between the agreement of the Assembly of the Consortium (granting a loan) and what was ordered by the president of the same and reflected in the accounts of the entity (granting a subsidy) could be resolved by a new agreement of the Assembly of the Water Consortium of Lanzarote, which confirms and clarifies the true nature of the operation (loan or subsidy)".
On March 30, the Consortium received a Certificate from the Plenary of the Canary Islands Court of Auditors, in which it is concluded that the existing discrepancy between the agreement of the Assembly of the Consortium and what was ordered by the Presidency of the same could be resolved by a new agreement of the Assembly of the Consortium by which, revoking the previous one, the decision adopted by the Presidency is confirmed, by virtue of the opinion of said Control Body and the intervention report.