The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office will not support the request of the Liberum association, which is exercising the popular accusation in the “Koldo affair”, to the Minister of Transport, Oscar Bridgeto be called to testify before the National Court as a witness.
The popular action asked Judge Ismael Moreno to summon Puente on August 23, after the head of Transportation announced in the Senate the dismissals of the undersecretary of the ministry, Jesus Manuel Gomezand the head of personnel of Adif, Michaux Miranda.
The latter will have to appear tomorrow as an investigator, while Gómez will do so on the 23rd.
Puente justified the dismissals by saying that there had been a “loss of confidence” in the two senior officials after learning of the conclusions of the internal audit that the minister ordered the execution on February 27 of the contracts for the purchase of masks that the ministry awarded to the conspiracy allegedly led by Koldo García, then advisor to the minister Jose Luis Abalos.
Sources from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office consider that summoning Puente as a witness to events of which he had no direct knowledge or witness makes no sense, since when they occurred, in the middle of a pandemic, he was mayor of Valladolid.
His testimony also makes no sense in relation to the audit signed on August 19 by the deputy general director, Belén Roel de Lara. The minister ordered this review and verification of the facts, but he did not do it. According to Anti-Corruption, the author should be the one who, if applicable, appears to ratify the audit requested by the investigating judge.
Only if data emerges on Puente’s material participation in the preparation of the audit or on the fact that he gave instructions on its content or influenced it in some way would his summons by the judge be relevant, add the sources consulted.
The audit contains compromising data for Puente’s predecessor, José Luis Ábalos. It reveals that with just 38 minutes of difference, the former minister I doubled the amount of an order placed in 2020 with the company Soluciones de Gestión SL, located at the epicenter of what is known as Koldo case.
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic at its peak, Transportes initially considered acquiring four million masks at a unit price of 2.5 euros. However, it ended up acquiring eight million masks, for a total value of 20 million euros.
“Eight million or nothing”
“On March 20, 2020, at 7:55 p.m., an order signed by Minister Ábalos was sent to the Undersecretary from the mailbox of the Minister’s Office, regulating the acquisition and distribution of a maximum of 4 million masks by the Ministry,” the document states.
“However,” he adds, “on the same day, March 20, at 8:33 p.m., from the same mailbox a new order was sent, signed by Minister Ábalos, which cancels the previous one and regulates the acquisition and distribution of a maximum of 8 million masks by the Ministry.”
The audit states that “requested by the Undersecretary [Jesús Manuel Gómez] Due to this change in the amount of needs detected that justify the modification of the object of the emergency, he indicates that the advisor to the minister at the time, Koldo García, told him that “the supplier provided 8 million or nothing“and that he understood that this decision had been approved by Minister Ábalos since, in fact, it was he who signed the new order for the acquisition of a maximum of 8 million masks.”
For the auditor, this modification of the object of the emergency contract “does not meet the criteria required in a procedure of these characteristics” given that the justification of the scope (number of masks to be acquired) of the emergency is considered “not adequately resolved.”
The document also shows that “there is no documentary evidence of the delivery” of the four million masks acquired by the Ábalos Ministry, that is, it has not been possible to prove that they were delivered to the Post Office or the General Directorate of Transport. . Land.
“Despite this lack of documentary evidence that the masks reached their final recipients, Puertos del Estado [el ente adjudicador] paid all invoices to Raminatrans [la empresa dedicada a la logística de su distribución]”There is no formal act of receipt or settlement,” he explains.
“It is appreciated lack of control of the four million masks intended for the land transport sector and MITMA personnel, given that the number of masks that were destined for one or the other destination is unknown,” he concludes.
