The Prosecutor’s Office has endorsed the complaint, first by Carmen Luisa Castro (PP) and then by the current mayor of Güímar, Gustavo Pérez, of a public contract of 2.7 million euros, supposedly falsified, which was signed by the former and current mayor. Councilor for Urban Planning of the PSOE in Güímar, Airam Puerta.
After carrying out several preliminary investigations into the alleged irregularities in that contract, the Public Ministry filed a complaint on October 26 in the Güímar courts to request that a judicial case be opened for an alleged crime of falsification in a public document and another of usurpation of public functions.
The Prosecutor’s Office indicates indications that the decree in which the contract was protected was drawn up illegally on December 28, 2021, even going so far as to supposedly invent a provision that does not exist in the Public Sector Contracts Law (LCSP) to give appearance of legality to the awarding of the work for the construction of a water sanitation network in the Fátima neighborhood. Likewise, the Public Ministry considers it proven that a person, still unidentified, posed as the municipal secretary of Güímar to have access to information about that and other public contracts awarded.
“There are reports from the City Council’s computer scientist and the general administration technique in which the authenticity of the aforementioned decree of December 28, 2021 is analyzed and, in both cases, they conclude that it is false,” indicates the Prosecutor’s Office in its complaint, filed before the Güímar courts to request the opening of a criminal case. The investigation focuses on the alleged falsification of the decree by which the private awarding of the work, for an amount of 2.7 million euros, to the company Wawa Canarias SL was justified by “emergency” needs.
In its brief, the Prosecutor’s Office requests to divide the case into two separate pieces and requests an extensive battery of proceedings aimed at clarifying the alleged falsification of the decree and contract under investigation. The Public Ministry requires that a letter be issued to the computer crimes group of the Civil Guard “in order to examine the authenticity of decree 2377/2021, of December 28, and contract 4210/2021, of December 29 , and its connection with decree 2377/2021, of June 9.”
It also requires taking statements as witnesses from more than half a dozen municipal officials, including the mayor, Gustavo Pérez. The current councilor has governed in coalition with the PSOE and the support of the only councilor of Unidas SÍ Podemos since the municipal elections in May, maintaining Airam Puerta as deputy mayor and councilor for Urban Planning.
The list of witnesses in the case includes the general secretary of the Güímar City Council, the contracting technician, the person in charge of that same area, the auditor and the municipal IT specialist, as well as the owner, the manager and a worker from the Wawa company. Canary Islands. Six months before the signing of the contract, on June 9, 2021 and with Airam Puerta as mayor, a minor contract of 14,128 euros was also awarded to the company Rivero Engineering and Architecture to be in charge of drafting the technical project of the works. sanitation in the Fátima neighborhood.
Secretary’s signature
As for Puerta and the current Councilor for Social Services and Finance, José Miguel Hernández, the Prosecutor’s Office is interested in waiting for the technical-expert analyzes entrusted to the Civil Guard and the contracting area of the City Council to “determine under what condition they should appear.” . The same is requested regarding the architect who was awarded the design of the work, José Víctor Rivero, to whom the company Wawa Canarias supposedly paid 100,000 euros, out of a total of 140,000 committed, for a project that was never executed, according to It emerges from the statement given before the Prosecutor’s Office by the manager of the company.
The reported contract states that, during its signing, Airam Puerta was assisted by the general secretary of the City Council and the manager of Wawa Canarias. However, in a tense plenary session at the end of last March, the official pointed out Puerta and Hernández for the alleged falsification of her digital signature. She assured that she would never have signed a contract for such a high amount through the emergency procedure and without a favorable report from the City Council’s legal services. That same day, the general secretary of the City Council announced the filing of a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office.
