The company, which the University of Costa Rica (UCO) links to the alleged kickbacks from Santos Cerdán, serves the demand of several municipalities in the south of the island through the desalination plant in the southeast of Gran Canaria.
Among the almost 500 pages of the UCO report which was made public last week and which pointed to Santos Cerdán, 'Acciona' is the fourth most mentioned word, a total of 200 times, only behind 'Koldo', 'Ábalos' and 'Santos'.
These mentions refer to the company Acciona SA, a Spanish multinational company specializing in the promotion and management of infrastructure and renewable energy. The company generated revenues of €3.048 billion in 2024 and is part of the IBEX 35.
The report states that Ábalos and Cerdán allegedly received bribes from the company in exchange for alleged preferential treatment in public works tenders. These accusations were responded to by Acciona in recent hours by firing Justo Pellegrini, who was until now the Director of Construction for Spain. “a lack of diligence in the exercise of his managerial responsibilities.”
According to the UCO report, the link between the leaders of the Koldo case and Acciona was Fernando Merino Vera, former director of the Navarra and La Rioja department and dismissed in 2021.
Acciona has also terminated all contracts with Servinabar 2000, another company linked to Santos Cerdán, and has launched an internal investigation to clarify any possible irregularities that may have occurred.
Acciona is a construction giant in Spain and much of the rest of the world. Its presence in Gran Canaria is quite extensive, especially the IDAM Sureste, better known as the southeast desalination plant, which is managed through one of its many subsidiaries, in this case Acciona Agua.
The infrastructure, which on Acciona's own website Labeled as “a milestone in the Canary Islands”, it supplies more than 220.000 inhabitants of the Southeast Commonwealth, which includes the municipalities of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Agüimes and Ingenio.
The desalination plant collects water through 17 wells up to 150 meters deep and has the capacity to obtain 55 liters of drinking water for every 100 liters of seawater through the reverse osmosis process.
The good performance of the infrastructure allowed the southeastern region to be a finalist in 2014 for the UN-Water Award for best practices. "Water, source of life", which recognizes best practices in the water-energy partnership. Furthermore, the desalination plant is currently undergoing expansion to increase its capacity by 15%, from 33.000 cubic meters to 38.000, thanks to a new module developed by the Canary Islands Institute of Technology.