The former secretary of the board of directors of Adif, Guillermo Martinez Simonstressed the one who Director General of People Management of the Railway Director, Michaux Mirandafor choosing to contract with the company SL Management Solutionsconsidered the epicenter of the corruption plot investigated in the Koldo case.
Martínez Simón testified this Monday before the judge of the National Court Ismael Moreno, who is investigating this judicial case, in which he investigates the alleged collection of illegal commissions through this and other awards given to the same company. All, intended for the supply of masks to the Administration at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
And in his statement, he indicated that it was Miranda who had chosen Soluciones de Gestión SL and that, despite the doubts and “reluctance” that were transmitted to him by some officials, such as the witness himself, decided to move forward with the hiring process. After this election, according to the witness, “no one expressed agreement or disagreement.” This is what EL ESPAÑOL reports through sources present at the interrogation.
“Pressures”
In one of its latest reports, the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office said that Michaux Miranda, along with other senior officials of the Ministry of Transport, “could having exerted certain pressures” to secure the hiring of that specific company, thereby harming competing offers.
As the witness stated this Tuesday, Adif chose Soluciones de Gestión SL after having already received a contract from another public entity linked to Transport. State Ports. In fact, another of the senior officials to whom the prosecution attributes these pressures is Alvaro Sanchez Manzanaresanother of the people investigated in this case.
In 2020, when the Solutions contracts with Adif and Puertos were signed, Sánchez Manzanares was the latter’s general secretary.
The truth is that before closing the award, Adif evaluated four offers, coming from Sánchez Manzanares, already licensed. And the unit price of each mask offered by Soluciones de Gestión SL was the highest.
The other three were those of Benzanilla and Renedo Abogados (1.35 euros per mask), Shouguan Group (2.02 euros) and Injoo Technologies (2.1 euros). Of these three, only the latter presented a direct offer to Adif, in addition to the company linked to the land.
Why didn’t companies that offered products at a cheaper price do so? Michaux Miranda claims he contacted them by phone and they told him he could not guarantee supply.
Instead, both companies assure “having received no call or contact from Adif“.
During the discussions that took place in those days within the management of Adif, the possibility of dividing the order of masks into two batches was considered, and ordering the larger one from Injoo, given that its offer was cheaper. All participants in the discussions agreed that it was better to diversify suppliers to avoid supply problems.
But eventually the commission was awarded five million masks to Management Solutions SL.
Curiously, and in parallel with the processing of this call for tenders, Adif actually contracted, also via the emergency procedure, one million masks with Injoo Technology, which had previously been rejected.
This Monday, he testified as a witness in the Koldo case Isabel Pardo de Vera, former president of Adif. And he stressed that The management of the public company she headed decided that the hiring proposal would come from the Sub-Directorate for the Prevention of Occupational Risks, attached to the General Directorate for People Management, which Michaux Miranda was in charge of. The latter will be questioned by the judge, as part of the investigation, next Thursday.
