The mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León (Popular Party), has halted three contracts for different crane services of the City Council and removed the deputy mayor, Echedey Eugenio (Coalition Canaria), until doubts are cleared about the possible incompatibility of a local police officer of the capital and administrator of a company to which the council awarded the crane services.
"I don't think it generates that doubt that anyone has been removed, it has been agreed with him to try to clarify possible incidents," Yonathan de León explained in his speech on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero. According to the mayor's version, the nationalist councilor and he agreed to transfer the powers of the area to clarify what happened. For his part, the deputy mayor of Arrecife, Echedey Eugenio, has intervened in the morning show to ensure that the decision for the mayor to assume the contracting powers in cranes was "agreed upon".
Yonathan de León transferred the powers corresponding to the nationalist to review three contracting files. "There were two options, either I do the review, on a file of the Local Police, with what they would have said that I am reviewing the mayor's files or he takes over the powers or does everything. We agreed like that without any major problem, neither he nor I gave the matter any importance," Eugenio explained.
"The decree refers to the contract object of what is being talked about, not to my powers. At no time does it refer to the fact that one can suspect his government partner," he added, "there are some who are too eager to find inconveniences in the government pact, when there are none."
"I had been told that one of the agents [of the Local Police] could have incurred in some type of incompatibility when submitting to a bidding procedure and well, all I have done is paralyze it and suspend the deadlines," de León added. From this point, the city council's secretariat and the Contracting Area must resolve whether the administration official may be incurring in some type of incompatibility.
"Once the reports are issued by the corresponding areas and if no incompatibility is incurred, obviously I will decree again the continuity of the procedure and that it continues and is awarded to whoever the Contracting Table had proposed, but I tell you first that I want to have those reports on the table," the mayor informed in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote.
Yonathan de León has stressed the importance of clarifying whether the contracting of the company managed by the Local Police incurs or not in a possible incompatibility and "that there is greater transparency."
"I have not removed the contracting councilor for anything, I have transferred the powers to him," he informed. As councilor of the Local Police, Yonathan de León, has assured that he tried to clarify whether or not this incompatibility was incurred since he became aware of it. In the event that the reports requested from the council's bodies reveal that the crane service contract cannot be given to the City Council, "we paralyze the procedure, it is re-tendered and we facilitate the procedure so that companies that want to participate in this tender can submit."
"It is an issue that does not have major implications, checks of this type are constantly made. They are done because they have to be done," Echedey Eugenio concluded.