The judge Ismael MorenoPresident of the Central Court of Instruction number 2 of the National Court, consulted the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the possibility of being summoned to appear as a witness Oscar Bridgecurrent Minister of Transport. The magistrate issued several resolutions between this Wednesday and Thursday in response to the indictments filed by the Liberum Association. The monitor, however, undertakes to request incorporation of audit led by the Ministry of Transport that so upset the former minister of the sector José Luis Ábalos, accused by his predecessor’s team of alleged irregularities when purchasing masks. Moreno asked the ministry, now headed by Óscar Puente, to give him a “certified copy” of said report.
In his resolutions, consulted by OKDIARIO, the magistrate specifies that before confirming that he calls the minister as a witness, he must ask a report to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Additionally, he asked Puente’s department to identify “the officials who participated in the preparation” of the internal analysis that resulted in the dismissal of a senior ministry official.
It should be noted that this research, known as Koldo caseexamines the actions of commissioned businessmen hired by the ministry to import masks during the coronavirus expansion. The research focuses on Koldo Garciaformer advisor to former Minister Ábalos, and the number of ministry officials involved is currently being assessed. So far, the former Undersecretary of Transport, Jesús Manuel Gómez, the former Secretary of State for Ports, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, and the former general director of Adif, Michaux Miranda, have been indicted.
Audit
The internal audit commissioned by the Ministry of Transport revealed that former minister José Luis Ábalos signed a ministerial decree on March 20, 2020 to purchase masks from the company Soluciones de Gestión, the main company involved in the Koldo case. In this order, the initial amount was doubled from four to eight million masks in just 38 minutes.
According to the report he had access to Europe PressOn March 19, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, the need to cfour million masks during the first fifteen days of the state of alarm. The following day, at 7:55 p.m., an order signed by Ábalos was issued for the acquisition and distribution of up to four million masks by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
However, on the same day at 8:33 p.m., it was sent a new order from the same mailbox, also signed by Ábalos, who canceled the previous one and doubled the number of masks to a maximum of eight million.
The audit says that then-undersecretary of state, Jesus Manuel Gomez who was dismissed by Minister Óscar Puente, explained that Koldo García, then an advisor to Ábalos, had argued that the supplier would only supply eight million masks, or even none. Gómez understood that this decision was supported by the minister, since the new order had been signed by him.
The report criticises this change, stressing that “noor meets the criteria “necessary in an emergency procedure”, because doubling the number of masks in such a short time is not considered justified. The audit stresses that emergency procedures must be limited to what is strictly necessary to manage the situation, and questions the justification for doubling the number of masks when a need of four million for a fortnight had already been estimated.
The report also highlights the initial “lack of control” in the Ministry, particularly with regard to the role played by Koldo García, who, as indicated, gave direct instructions to the distribution company on the destination of the first masks that arrived in Barajas, actions that should have been reserved for the contracting body.
In addition, the audit reveals that Garcia carried out 25,000 masks to the Ministry, which they kept and then removed, leaving no an official record beyond the informal knowledge of the CEO and the Director General of the organization and inspection at the time. Finally, it would seem that they currently remain stored in the basement from the ministry 238,840 masks, and in a warehouse in Azuqueca de Henares, around 206,000, whose economic value amounts to 1,128,559 euros.
