The Spokesman for the conservative-led Diputacion de Granada, Jose Torrente has strongly criticised his socialist predecessors – the Diputacion, long in the hands of the socialists, has just changed ‘tenants.’

According to the new Chairman of this administration, the outgoing chairman had access to a European grant for 567,000 euros sitting on his desk from the 25th March until the 12th of May, knowing that the grant would only be granted if the work on the monument was at least 80% concluded by the end of June.

It appears, however, that the previous administration obtained an extension to the end of September, although the present occupants claim that nobody has seen a written copy of this document.

However, damningly, the viability of the project to convert the castle into the Centro Mediterraneo de Cooperacion, Demonstracion y Capacitacion de Energias Renovable, was known as far back as the 8th of February 2011.

As an editorial aside, only a bureaucrat could have thought up such a name, which even when reduced to just its initials is still unmanageable; i.e., CMCDCER.

The new Chairman demands to know why it was left sitting around on the ex-Chairman’s desk, and, how it seemingly appears that the criteria for putting the project up for bidding was changed to favour certain ‘friendly’ businesses, he alleges. According to the present Chairman, the alleged bad management, fruit of changing the goal posts to suit certain companies, meant that the the list of companies whose bids were admitted was not compiled until the 21st of June; i.e., just ten days before the building should have concluded to be eligible for the EU grant.

(News: Carchuna, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)