2024-08-23 18:51:39
This Friday in the Senate, the Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, made a break with his predecessor in office, José Luis Ábalos, through two senior officials he kept in his cabinet and who came out badly at the internal investigation of dismiss the office. A ‘Koldo’ case that opened a few months ago. The audit, published on the Ministry’s websitetalking about “irregularities” in the contracts to buy masks during the pandemic and referring to the management of the former minister’s staff.
Puente orders a “very extensive” inspection of the purchase of masks in the plot of Koldo García Ministry
Puente appeared this Friday in the Upper House at the request of the PP and then announced the dismissal of the Undersecretary of Transport, Jesús Manuel Gómez, and the general director of People Management of the railway manager, Michaux Miranda, already accused by the judge. of the National Court, Ismael Moreno, in the case investigating the alleged irregularities in the purchase of masks by the Ministry during the pandemic, known as the ‘Koldo case’, named after the advisor of Ábalos in Transport, the alleged leader of the plot.
In March, the current minister already dismissed the general secretary of State Ports, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, who is responsible for processing the largest contract that the judge is investigating, for the amount of 20 million euros to Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a la Empresa, the main. company.
“Given the procedural situation, I do not evaluate that decision, the facts drawn from the audit involve a loss of confidence,” Puente justified his appearance, in which he read the main conclusions of the internal audit on the purchase. . of FFP2 masks ordered by two entities of his department, State Ports, in the worst case, from the plot of Koldo García. An inspection that ended, according to Puente, last Tuesday, August 20, and concluded that “it appears that the necessary requirements” regarding the purchase through emergency contracts “were clearly not met.”
Transport replicated a purchase order in 38 minutes
The Ministry of Transport doubled the first purchase of masks in just 38 minutes. During that time period, the Ábalos department placed an order that changed the first order of almost 4 million masks to about 8. According to the documents provided in the audit, the portfolio ended up paying 20 million euros for the that purchase, dated 20 March. , just a week after the Government announced a State of Alarm due to the pandemic situation.
“On March 20, 2020, at 7:55 pm, an Order signed by the Minister is sent to the Under Secretary from the Minister’s Cabinet mailbox. […] which controls the acquisition and distribution of a maximum of 4 million masks by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. However, on the same day, 20 March, at 8:33 pm, a new Order signed by the Minister was sent from the same mailbox, canceling the previous one, and regulating the acquisition and distribution of 8 million masks on amount with the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda […]” described the report.
In the investigation, the auditors ask Gómez about this sudden change and the Undersecretary insists that everything was due to the demands of the seller, the company Soluciones de Gestión SL. “The supplier provided 8 million or nothing,” says a senior official of the Ministry that Koldo García told him at that time. Gómez also assures investigators that Ábalos himself signed the purchase order, so he understood that the change had his endorsement.
“It is not possible to draw attention to the fact that this modification of the purpose of the emergency does not meet the criteria required in a procedure of these characteristics, already referred to in this report, since its authorship is considered insufficient the scope. resolved (number of masks to be found) the emergency”, maintains the internal investigation.
Even if it were an “all or nothing” offer, the report continues, the “hypothetical lack of allowance for action between zero and eight million masks” should have been “properly authorized in the file, as an incentive for the change in “the scope of the emergency.”
The report does not question the price paid for the masks – even below the market price according to subsequent analysis – and is not struck by the fact that there was only one supplier in such a case, but considers that there should be a justification and documented by the Ministry. in the file to search for other possible candidates or the argument for not doing that search. “In view of all the above, and reiterating that an emergency procedure allows an order to be made even in a purely verbal manner, it is considered that the contracting body should address that justification, for the sake of maximum transparency and objectivity of the process . ,” the document says.
The audit also mentions the second purchase of masks by the Ministry of Transport, an order placed on March 25, when the packages from the first shipment had not even arrived. In six, there were more bidding companies, some with lower price proposals, he declared. Therefore, the audit does not consider the award to Management Solutions to be justified.
This second purchase, like the first, was initially entrusted to Puertos del Estado as the contracting body, although Adif was finally commissioned: 5 million more despite the fact that the first batches of the 8 million contract did not arrive on December 20 still .
“In all the documents that have been analysed, there is no study or analysis of needs that would justify the acquisition of 5 million more masks, just 6 days after the approval of the first Order, in which it was also decided to buy that many. masks as initially considered necessary based on the studies carried out in the Ministry, ” says the report, which asks the Undersecretary to justify this new order. Gómez does not remember who decided the amount and insists that when it was approved “the needs were not known” and that they were bought “in anticipation.”
Looking to the future, the audit report sees the need to identify the people who participate in the purchasing procedures. Puente pointed out that among the preventive measures recommended in the report, people who have no relationship with the administration do not intervene in this type of purchase procedures “referring to Mr. Aldama directly or indirectly,” he said out referring to the businessman and president of Zamora CF who was the mediator.
The judge investigates 52 million contracts
The Office of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor began a secret investigation more than two years ago, at the end of April 2022. Almost a year ago, the investigations entered another aspect, monitoring and wiretapping, when the case was prosecuted in the National Court. Since then, Judge Ismael Moreno has investigated whether Koldo García, a former adviser to José Luis Ábalos during his time as Minister of Transport, and some businessmen such as Víctor Aldama managed to obtain million dollar public contracts for masks and buy medical supplies during the first. the year of the pandemic. The jump from the investigation to the media caused the PSOE to suspend Ábalos from the militia last February, who decided to keep the seat in the Congress to protect himself, he then alleged.
According to Anti-Corruption, it was Koldo García who gave information to friendly businessmen about the award of medical supplies to be made and who had the “direct relationship” with the officials who awarded some of the contracts. In addition, according to the judge, he retained his “ability to influence personnel linked to the Ministry and, in particular, the entities that awarded the investigative contracts” even two years after he left the Government in the summer 2021.
Eight contracts for almost 52 million euros have been awarded by various Administration entities under suspicion. Among them are Puertos del Estado and Adif, depending on Transport, but also on regional governments such as the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. Last March, Minister Puente dismissed the Secretary General of State Ports at the time, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, who is responsible for processing the largest contract related to the plot.
In recent months, the judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno and the European Prosecutor’s Office have been involved in a conflict to decide who should focus the investigation of the case. Last July, the Supreme Court resolved this jurisdictional conflict and decided that the case should continue to be heard in the special court. The judges of the Criminal Court argued that they were investigating “whether there could be a criminal organization aimed at irregularly obtaining contracts for medical supplies,” with the intervention of businessmen and “public officials” to, finally , “to hide the profits.” Information Elena Herrera.
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