The publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the Resolution of October 13, 2025, is not a mere bureaucratic formality; it is a wake-up call regarding the administrative paralysis plaguing the financial heart of Gran Canaria. The Unitary Competition to fill positions for nationally qualified civil servants—secretaries, auditors, and treasurers—exposes to the public the chronic dysfunction in the municipalities that manage the island's tourism cash register. The south of Gran Canaria, the epicenter of the Canary Islands' wealth, has its leadership positions empty, temporary, or covered with patches.
The list of vacancies is a map of the institutional weakness in the town councils of San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Maspalomas), Mogán, and Santa Lucía de Tirajana. These officials, who act as legal and economic barriers, have been absent for years, creating an ideal breeding ground for political instability and fiscal risk. The Secretariat of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, for example, has been formally vacant since 1991! An extreme case of structural paralysis in a municipality with the population and industrial weight of Vecindario, where the key legality position has been filled by accumulation for decades.
The situation is repeated in the tourism giants. Mogán has had its Intervention vacant since 2018 and its Secretariat vacant since 2016, both temporarily filled. In San Bartolomé de Tirajana, the island's main tourist hub, the Secretariat and Deputy Secretariat are filled by temporary appointments or extensions, crucial positions for managing the legality of the modernization plans in Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas, areas that move billions of euros.
The entry of permanent civil servants into these town halls has implications that go beyond simple management. The secretary, the auditor, and the treasurer are the legal checks and balances that can paralyze political decisions, audit budgetary deviations, and approve contracts that support the tourism business. Mogán, with its auditor's office vacant since 2018, desperately needs a permanent auditor to put the accounts of its growing tourism holding company in order.
The 2024-2025 Unitary Competition offers a window of opportunity to cut the umbilical cord of interim positions. If the positions are filled with experienced and independent national representatives, the mayoral offices' ability to operate with discretion will be seriously limited. It is, in essence, a power struggle between the need for political governability and the demand for technical and legal rigor. Publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) is not only intended to fill positions; it seeks to install permanent prosecutors in the vaults of southern Gran Canaria. It is a test of the will for stability of local power in the Canary Islands.
