The document was approved by Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez (AV) last December but was not formally made public until this July, although the 2020 document by Concepción Narváez (PSOE) appears on the Edusi project website. And in the Eden of Maspalomas, where the flesh is often weak and the spirit prone to compromise, the City Council has decided to plant a tree of moral science, a compendium of paper virtues: the Code of Ethics and Conduct for public employees involved, but only for those associated with the DUSI SBT2020 project. And the rest? An effort to tame the intricate tangle of public management with the reins of rectitude, transparency, and that chimera called "the general interest."
This isn't a local idea, to be clear. The roots of this manual of good manners are anchored in the Basic Statute of Public Employees, that national catechism that outlines the ideal civil servant: objective, upright, neutral, responsible, impartial, confidential, and, if that weren't enough, exemplary and austere. A list of qualities that, read aloud in the sun-filled, business-filled atmosphere of the southern coast, sounds like a Gregorian chant in a nightclub.
Duties, according to this secular gospel, are as demanding as they are universal. Public employees in San Bartolomé must perform their duties diligently, safeguard the general interest—that elusive concept—and, of course, act with an objectivity that seems almost heroic, far removed from any personal, familial, or, worse yet, clientelist bias. This last clause, in the framework of any city council, is a direct blow to the very heart of the old ways.
They are required to be loyal and have good faith, to treat superiors and citizens with respect, and to refrain from any hint of discrimination. No preferential treatment, no unjustified privileges; no accepting gifts or advantageous services that go beyond "normal, social, and courteous customs." A very fine line, certainly, between cordiality and corruption, one that only conscience (and the Penal Code) can discern. The civil servant, in this new creed, is an ascetic of service.
The code, with its fine print and lofty aspirations, does not neglect transparency and honesty. No influencing the streamlining of procedures without just cause or for personal benefit or that of one's "immediate family and social environment." A mirror that the administration holds up to itself, aware of the shadows that are sometimes projected on the speed of processing.
And then there's the article dedicated to secrecy and discretion. Those "classified" matters or matters whose dissemination is prohibited, information known by virtue of one's position that may not be used for personal benefit or that of third parties. A reminder for those who, tempted by the power of data, might see it as a bargaining chip or a personal shortcut. The duty to preserve public assets with austerity, in a municipality that, by its very nature as a tourist destination, handles figures and luxuries that sometimes defy common sense.
In short, the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council has formalized a declaration of war against temptation, a pact with non-negotiable virtue. A catalog of ethical and behavioral principles that, like any great ideal, confronts the malleability of the human condition. Because, in the end, morality, like sand, can be very fine and slippery.
