The spokesman for United We Can in the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ramón Trujillo, has accused the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez (Canarian Coalition), this Thursday of favoring the multinational Sacyr (which manages water in the city) against citizenship and their own electoral interest.
Canarian Coalition forgives Sacyr for the 59 million it paid to keep the water business of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
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The origin of this case dates back to 2005, when, with Miguel Zerolo as mayor (of the Canarian Coalition and currently in jail for the Las Teresitas beach corruption case), the City Council privatized the Santa Cruz de Aguas Mixed Company. Tenerife (Emmasa). The tender, for which an acquisition fee of 59 million euros had to be paid, was won by Sacyr. And once controlled by the multinational, Emmasa decided to return to the parent company, that is, to herself, the canon paid at a rate of 2,360,000 euros per year. In summary, that Santa Cruz would deliver to the company the money that it paid, with which it benefited it and the city lost money that belonged to it.
This came to light in the brief period in which the City Council passed into the hands of Patricia Hernández, from the PSOE, who immediately stopped payments to Sacyr, which until then had already unduly recovered 33.6 million euros.
Currently there is a judicial process open to claim all the money collected by the company (plus interest), but the City Council, again in the hands of CC, did not appear in that case thanks to the quality vote of Mayor Bermúdez.
Now the City Council has reached an agreement with the multinational so that it can initiate the return, but there is, again, a clause that benefits the company: the reimbursement of the money has been linked to a rise in the water rate for the neighbors . In fact, the City Council gave a press conference at the beginning of the summer to explain that said increase was 8%.
That is to say, the company and the Consistory have signed that it begins to return the 33 million unduly charged but with the condition of raising the rates, with which it will earn 49 million.
Ramón Trujillo (Unidas Podemos), at a press conference this Thursday, asked himself why the mayor has reached this agreement that benefits Sacyr, an issue that he has said that he has transferred to Bermúdez himself in the plenary session of the City Council and that this has not responded.
Return 33 million, but win 49
According to the calculations of the opposition councilor, Sacyr has to return 33.6 million plus interest within ten years, but with the new agreement and the rise in the water rate, this company will earn 49 million in that time (between 2022 and 2031).
Trujillo has criticized that the mayor defends the interests of Sacyr, a company to which he makes “unacceptable concessions”, as in his opinion it is raising water rates as a condition for him to return the money he improperly charged to the City Council.
In his opinion, this agreement is “profoundly immoral”, which makes the neighbors, with the rise in the water rate and its link to the CPI, pay the canon.
Despite having reached this agreement with the City Council that favors him, Sacyr maintains the administrative dispute to not pay and the council does not ask him to withdraw it, the councilor of United We Can has warned, who considers it “a shame” that Bermúdez has not appeared as a private accusation due to improper collection by Sacyr nor has it been favorable to the creation of an investigation commission.
“How can we have a mayor who so severely damages the interest of the neighbors to favor a private company?”, He has questioned, while pointing out that the rise in the water rate goes against common sense and the electoral interest of Bermúdez.
In this context, Trujillo has demanded the resolution of the contract with Sacyr for having improperly charged 33.6 million, after the Canary Coalition (CC), the mayor’s party, decided to privatize the water service.
“Bermúdez should not represent the citizenry, the CC of Bermúdez is the CC of Zerolo”, asserted the opposition councilor, who lamented that his complaints did not reach public opinion in the same way as those of the mayor.
For this reason, it has advanced that it will start a campaign on social networks to denounce this situation at the same time that it will assess whether it can add this information to the criminal case opened for the return of the canon, which United We Can take to court.
