Óscar Puente has said enough. The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility wants to put an end to the constant breakdowns of the Adif infrastructure which for months have caused train delays and cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
The first step was the dismissal this Friday of Ángel Contreras from the position of president of the infrastructure manager; a move that will be the first in a long series of others that will come to put the company in order, put an end to the problems and reverse the reputational damage that has not been managed in recent months.
Ministerial sources insist that what happened this Friday, with Euromed derailment at Sants and breakdown at Atochahas exhausted the minister’s patience. It is urgent, they insist, to put an end to it and make decisions.
They completely dissociate it from the “Koldo case”, even though the summary links Ángel Contreras to alleged favors granted to certain ADIF contracting companies while he was General Director of Conservation and Maintenance of the infrastructure manager.
A difficult issue to separate, especially when Contreras arrived from that direction to the presidency of Adif ten months ago. He did it to relieve María Luisa Domínguez, who had been fired by Puente himself after the change of government and while the minister was building what would be his trusted team within the ministry and all its associated companies.
Barely ten months later, management errors Contreras’s dismissals at Adif cost him his job. And not just him. In recent weeks, the company’s chief of staff, Michaux Miranda, was also fired, this time because of his “procedural situation” in the Koldo case.
In the transport sector, they believe that There will be new movements in the coming weeksonce a person of total confidence of Minister Puente is placed at the head of the ADIF. It is he who will have to recompose the management team and will have free rein to make the changes deemed appropriate.
The goal, they insist, is to make urgent decisions to resolve a situation that has become a reputation problem for Adif -and by extension for Renfe-; but also in damage to the image of the government. Especially at a time when the Executive wants to promote the use of public transport among citizens.
Contreras and the “Koldo case”
The arrival of Ángel Contreras to the presidency of the Adif was punctuated by his appearance in the summary of the “Koldo case” when he had not even occupied his new position for a quarter.
Contreras met twice with former advisor to José Luis Ábalos in the seafood restaurant La Chalana, as evidenced by the UCO reports on the surveillance carried out on Koldo García.
The first meeting took place on November 2, 2023 at 4:45 p.m. The second meeting took place on December 5, 2023, when Contreras was appointed president of Adif.
Despite this, Contreras is not under investigation and has no responsibility for the purchase of the masks from the company Soluciones de Gestión of the commissioner Víctor de Aldama.
El ya expresidente de Adif también estuvo reunido con José Luis Ábalos el 10 de enero de 2023 en La Chalana, la noche en la que la Guardia Civil fotografió al exministro en dicha marisquería.
En cambio, la UCO sí señala especialmente a Ángel Contreras en una licitación de emergencia en las obras del AVE para el tramo Monforte de Lemos-Lugo. Un corrimiento de tierras obligaba a una obra de emergencia de 1,5 millones de euros.
Las escuchas telefónicas revelan que la empresa Obras Públicas y Regadíos SA había recurrido a Koldo García para que “ejerciera su influencia” sobre el presidente del Adif.
El empresario Daniel Fernández, en una llamada interceptada por la Guardia Civil, hace referencia a Contreras: “Ángel sabe que nos ha quitado 600.000 euros en esa obra y debe ayudarnos, pero ya sabes…”.
En el momento de los hechos que dieron origen a las diligencias de investigación, destacan los agentes, Contreras era director general de Conservación y Mantenimiento de Adif.
El día 19 de febrero de 2024 Koldo García recibía de Daniel Fernández los detalles del contrato sobre el tramo del AVE.
El presidente de ADIF, Ángel Contreras, antes de comparecer en el Senado en la Comisión de Investigación sobre el ‘caso Koldo’, el pasado 4 de junio.
Europa Press
Las conversaciones intervenidas reflejan que Koldo y el hermano del empresario al que se adjudicó la obra concertaron una reunión el miércoles 21 de febrero de este año.
Para los agentes de la UCO, “resulta llamativo que ese mismo día Koldo también habría intentado reunirse con el que pudiera ser Ángel Contreras Marín”, el actual presidente de Adif, precisamente la compañía pública que licitó la obra.
Koldo había propuesto mantener un encuentro a Ángel unos días antes. “Muy buenas, marqués”, le dijo a través de un mensaje. “Yo ando en Madrid, sé que será difícil verte, pero si puedes, dime. O comer o cenar… O, si no, cinco minutos”.
Ante esta propuesta, el actual presidente de Adif, le respondía: “Hoy me resulta imposible. [De] Next week, what day is best for you?” Angel later tells him that he only has time on Wednesday, February 21, in the morning, the same day that Koldo goes to see the businessman to whom they have entrusted the work of the AVE section.
“10:15-11:00, how do you see it?” Angel asks him. “Perfect,” Koldo replies.
“The importance of this meeting,” the UCO maintains, “lies in the fact that Angel is currently president of the Adif and that at the time of the events, he was director general of Conservation and Maintenance of the Adif.”
“This entity was the successful bidder for the public works contract that was the subject of Daniel’s messages, and the latter was mentioned in the message sent to Koldo requesting the exercise of his influence for the award of a new contract linked to the one already awarded by ADIF,” the researchers conclude.
UCO Report
As published by EL ESPAÑOL on May 26, 2024, the UCO is investigating the destination of 54 million euros to construction companies linked in one way or another to the “Koldo case” in 128 public contracts.
Sources in the case indicate that in the coming weeks, we could know New UCO report focuses on construction company awards and any commission charges.
Sources from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, consulted by EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia, have in the past minimized the information collected and interpreted by the UCO on Ángel Contreras.
Oscar Puente’s department then considered that the accusations against Ángel Contreras Martín are “incoherent” and based on conjecture. In fact, they stated that the report “says nothing.”
