Six months have passed since the incident at the retirement home. Six months in which nothing has been done by the Arrecife City Council, despite the fact that it was reported at the time, and even so, the agreement-commission with the Government of the Canary Islands was allowed to expire.
Many meetings have been held in said center without the councilor of the Social Services area, Victoria Sande, appearing. Many lies have been told about the procedure that was being carried out with the Autonomous Government of the Canary Islands. In fact, from Ciudadanos (Cs) an file was even sent to the Directorate of Social Affairs of the Government of the Canary Islands, which seems to have never reached its recipient.
Now, finally, after 180 days, the general director of Social Policies, Reyes Henríquez, comes to Lanzarote, yes, without publicity, lest the councilors of the opposition of this capital city council find out and make a fuss, and of course without the press knowing, lest they publish some truth and embarrass them, because the consistory is already in charge of sending its own press release.
Thanks to that meeting we learned of some realities that are not what they painted us, because when they said that they were already on it, that is, in establishing a new Arrecife City Council-Government of the Canary Islands agreement, where what was intended was for the consistory to assume a complete transfer, it turns out that this will no longer be possible. This impediment has to do with the fact that the premises belong to Imserso (attached to the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality), which only delegated the management to the Government of the Canary Islands and the latter, in turn, entrusted powers to the city council. And to carry out a transfer, the regulations must be changed at the national level. First lie
Secondly, when they said that "only" activities could be done there during the day, due to lack of electricity, it is also not true, because if we do not comply with the Safety and Hygiene measures, the center must be closed and the necessary works carried out. Add that even having the financing and the expertise, a major construction project must be prepared (about 400,000 euros), which must be signed by the responsible technicians and that takes an approximate time of eight months.
And the third lie, so as not to bore you anymore, is the fact that in 3 or 4 weeks they will be assigned a place to carry out the activities that were done in the Retirement Home and thus begin the work. Said place is already there, according to the Councilor for Social Services, but it cannot be said by protocol. And then, why can't the change be made now, why wait those weeks, which it is not known if they are two, three or four? Why so little transparency? Why was it necessary for representatives of the Government of the Canary Islands to come to find a solution like another place while the file is being resolved, if the users of the center, most of them are registered in Arrecife?
The truth is that the management of this Arrecife Government team leaves much to be desired. They get lost in so much bureaucracy, letting time pass without considering that we are dealing with people, not with file numbers.
Delia Hernández, municipal spokesperson for Ciudadanos (Cs) in the Arrecife City Council