The president of the Council of TenerifePedro Martín, denounced this Tuesday an “absolute mess” until the last term in the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies (ITER), a company dependent on the insular institution. He referred to loans that were not repaid, workers who were in fraud of the law, contracts by finger or urban illegalities, among other irregularities detected. “The last thing I have found out is that we have a private illegal kennel within ITER,” said the socialist politician.
These demonstrations came in a extraordinary plenary session requested by Canarian Coalition (DC) as a consequence of the shutdown of the Areté and La Roca wind farms, in Granadilla and for which ITER is in charge. However, the matter remained in the background, with CC criticizing losses of up to eight million euros due to this inactivity and attributing responsibility to the insular government, while the latter maintained that the companies Iberdrola and Energías Ecológicas were to blame. Tenerife.
The focus, on the other hand, ended up on the global management of ITER, an entity promoted by the Cabildo and which was created in 1990 with the aim of promoting sustainable development and innovation in Tenerife. “Currently, ITER is an international benchmark research center in renewable energy, engineering, telecommunications, the environment and genomics,” says its website. Likewise, it has been linked to the field of volcanism.
Martín took the floor in the middle of the debate, defended that the insular government is not responsible for what happened and charged against the nationalists, whom he asked if their spokesman, Carlos Alonso, “advises or has advised” Iberdrola and Energías Ecológicas de Tenerife , given that, he said, in that case there would be “a clear incompatibility.” The president of the Cabildo insisted in another later intervention on that matter: “I beg you to tell me if the question I have asked is appropriate or not, or if there are incompatibilities.” He received no response from the nationalist bench.
The PSOE understands that they have had to carry out “an enormous job to resolve all the irregularities that existed in ITER, which are many and very serious.” In the enumeration that Pedro Martín put together, he included “loans between group companies that were not repaid” for more than 18 million euros, more than 47 workers in fraud of law and service contracts by finger, some for an amount greater than 100,000 euros. He went further and added that there were agreements that were not formalized in writing, but through the formula of “You start and let’s see, as if there were no Contract Law”. Always according to his version, urban planning permits were missing in some bioclimatic houses, there were “illegal hookups” to the electricity supply and other irregularities with the water service. “It creates embarrassment for others,” he said.
Another plenary session on ITER
The nationalist councilor Antolín Bueno invited the management of ITER to go to another plenary session, and pointed out that this Tuesday it was time to address the problem with the wind farms. Subsequently, Martín stated that he was picking up “the glove” that the Canarian Coalition had proposed to him and that that meeting would be convened. plenary meeting “to talk about everything”.
The socialist counselor Javier Rodríguez expressed in plenary session that in the previous «management and political direction ITER was managed like a ventorrillo, dispatching matters to the buddy style.” Rodríguez turned against his approach. The non-attached – formerly of Sí Podemos Canarias – María José Belda and Valentín Esteban González (PP) made him ugly after his speech that the PSOE governed in agreement with the CC until the last term.
