In the pragmatic world of financial engineering, sometimes the smallest movement generates the greatest leverage. The Government of the Canary Islands has executed this week a surgical operation: the purchase of a single share of the state-owned company Ineco for a value of 1,450.27 euros. The amount, insignificant for a regional budget, is actually the master key to reactivating infrastructure projects. This will allow management assignments to be executed by Ineco as is already the case with Gesplan, a company under the political control of ASG, the Gomera minority led by Casimiro Curbelo.
The maneuver raises questions. While it guarantees technical solvency by resorting to a public entity with international experience, the use of Ineco as a ‘means of its own’ closes the door to private engineering consultancies that aspired to participate in designing these megaprojects. Nevertheless, for capital markets and the European Union, the presence of Ineco at the heart of the project adds a layer of guarantee and technical rigor that facilitates fundraising. On the islands, the time for studies seems to have ended; the era of execution under the stamp of state engineering begins.
The decision of the Government Council is not an investor whim, but a legal maneuver to convert Ineco into a ‘means of its own’ for the Autonomous Community. In terms of administrative efficiency, this allows the Minister of Public Works, Pablo Rodríguez, to directly award contracts for consultancy and engineering to Ineco without the need to open public tenders in areas such as Canary Ports.
This movement seeks to avoid judicial paralysis and the resources of private competitors that tend to hinder large tenders on the islands. By integrating Ineco into the machinery of the Executive, the Canary Islands secure the ‘technical arm’ of the Ministry of Transport, gaining immediate access to the greatest railway engineering capacity in Spain; but at the cost of local engineering firms. Beyond the blueprints and the tracks, the operation has profound political implications. Rodríguez not only acquires the share but will also sit on the General Meeting and the Board of Directors of Ineco.
News written by José L. Jiménez. Edited and verified by Pedro Marrero. Information cross-checked without institutional filters. This analysis has not been funded by official advertising nor conditioned by lobbying interests.
