Last January, the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) reactivated emergency contracts (by hand) with private clinics which a judge is investigating for a possible crime of prevarication, because they are covered by a law authorized in a pandemic already repealed. Ten months earlier, the spokesperson for the Andalusian Government had announced at Government headquarters the cancellation of this type of contract.
Between January and July of that same year, the SAS once again allocated more than 28 million euros to ten private hospitals by signing nine amendments (extensions of expenditure) to the same emergency administrative file, dated January 20, 2021 , and which constitutes the epicenter of the legal process against the government of Juan Manuel Moreno.
The nine addendums, to which this newspaper had access, are “modifications” to the budget initially agreed with these companies three years ago, to continue referring patients to their clinics in 2024. This is the “fourth”, of the “fifth”, the “seventh” and even the “eighth” increase in expenses with the same private hospital, but in all cases the contracted service is the same: the “provision of medical, diagnostic and therapeutic care for procedures” oncology”. All are authorized by the current director of SAS, Valle García, who has held this position since December 2023.
The first six spending increases related to joint contracts with these clinics were signed by García on January 17, just one month after his appointment, and for an amount exceeding 22 million euros. Ten months ago, on March 14, 2023, the Andalusian government announced that it was ending emergency hiring, 48 hours after elDiario.es Andalucía revealed that it had manually extended a procedure for two and a half years exceptional recruitment, without legal coverage. , until June 2023.
The other three amendments, amounting to 5.93 million euros, were signed by the manager of the SAS on July 18, still under the command of the former Minister of Health, Catalina García. A week later, Moreno fired her but kept her in his cabinet, giving her the Environment portfolio, amid a government crisis aimed at resetting the legislature midterm. In his place, he appointed the current Minister of Health, Rocío Hernández Soto.
Between January 2021 and June 2023, the SAS signed four resolutions extending the famous file 110/2021, subject to the emergency agreement of January 20, 2021, authorized by the director of SAS at the time and later Deputy Minister of Health, Miguel Ange Guzmán.
The initial budget for this case to refer patients to private clinics was 70 million euros, but it ended up quadrupling to 243 million thanks to continued amendments. Each time the duration of the initial contract expired [el primero caducaba en diciembre de 2021]the SAS signed a new extension resolution arguing for the “continuity of the critical situation of the pandemic due to the considerable increase in infections”.
He did this until the summer of 2023, when elDiario.es revealed the news that caused a political stir and an immediate reaction from the management. The spokesperson for the Andalusian government at the time, Ramón Fernández Pacheco, announced that this contracting system would be suspended after the latest extension.
In the following months, and under the weight of oversized waiting lists for surgical operations, Moreno’s executive fired Guzmán, the main person responsible for these contracts, and his successor Diego Vargas as head of the SAS. In December 2023, the current director, Valle García, was appointed, who immediately resumed contracts with private clinics, using this emergency file, whose legal basis was a decree of the Royal Government repealed in May 2021.
24 hours between complaint and accusation
This explains why judge Javier Santamaría, who manually investigates the contracts, summoned her for indictment 24 hours after the socialists filed a complaint against her last Monday. García again signed spending extensions for the awarding of contracts after Moreno’s executive announced his suspension to return to an open procurement procedure, with advertising and competitive bidding, which has never been activated.
When it signed the last addendums to which this newspaper had access, on July 18, barely a month ago, the PSOE had filed a complaint with the Court of Instruction 13 of Seville for a possible crime of prevarication and embezzlement in the award of 243 million. euros in contractual contracts between 2021 and 2023.
It was June 20, but the judge will not open the procedure until October. But the socialists had spent a year threatening to denounce and accusing the Board of Directors of corruption, and yet the SAS reactivated these contracts under suspicion, without fear of ending up in court.
Last Monday, the socialists expanded the complaint filed in court to emphasize that the current director of the SAS is responsible for perpetuating a contractual hiring procedure that they consider illegal, and which the judge and the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office perceive, at least, indications of prevarication. Twenty-four hours later, the magistrate indicted García and his predecessors in office, Guzmán and Vargas, causing shock at the San Telmo Palace, seat of the Council.
The legal file, joined by the anti-corruption prosecution, investigates a “parallel system” of subcontracting private clinics which covers a period of four years, from 2020, the year of the pandemic, to today. In a recent decision, the prosecutor and the judge demanded a mountain of documents from the Andalusian government and internal and external inspection bodies.
Among other things, they requested the expenditure files of the SAS between 2020 and 2024, the audit reports of the General Intervention of the Junta de Andalucía and, in particular, of the Ministry of Health for 2021, 2022 and 2023, the reports and resolutions of the Secretariat of the State Public Advisory Council, which in 2021 ordered administrations to stop regularly using emergency; the report of the Chamber of Auditors relating to the year 2020, and any documentation relating to the investigation in the hands of the Court of Auditors.
The judge summoned the last three leaders of SAS “any day in November” to officially inform them that they are under investigation for prevarication. The PSOE also accuses them of crimes of embezzlement, falsification of documents and membership in a criminal organization, punishable by eight years in prison, and leaves the door open to the involvement of the “highest levels of government”.
Asisa, with 60% of contracts under contract in 2024
Among the private hospitals benefiting from emergency contracts between 2021 and 2023 and which were once again awarded an award by the SAS this year, those of the HLA Group (Asisa) stand out, which receives 17.7 million euros in five amendments, or more than 60% of the 28 million distributed in this last batch.
The four Asisa hospitals that have benefited are the HLA Mediterráneo, in Almería, which received 4.4 million in an addendum in January, and a further 4.95 million in July; the Santa Isabel Clinic, in Seville, with 8.1 million; and Comprehensive Diagnostic Medical Centers for La Inmaculada Hospital, in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), for 290,000 euros.
The PSOE points out in its complaint that the former director of the SAS and responsible for the initial emergency file from which all subsequent increases in expenses emanated, Miguel Ángel Guzmán, signed for the Asisa company three months after his resignation from his position. position of Deputy Minister of Health, in December 2023. During his mandate as SAS manager, he signed contracts with Asisa worth 44 million euros. The Andalusian government intervened to stop his move to the private sector, arguing that he violated the law of incompatibility of senior civil servants, but for a few months.
The other expenditure extensions of the 2021 emergency contract benefited the Doctor Antonio López hospital, in Cádiz, for 2.25 million; the San Juan de Dios, in Seville, for 3.27 million; the Viamed de Bahía de Cádiz, for 3.9 million; the Dos Hermanas Radiological Center, in Seville, for 143,271 euros; and Comprehensive Diagnostic Medical Centers of Cádiz, for 565,000 euros.
This newspaper asked the Andalusian government why it continues to use emergency contracts, extending a file from 2021, a year after announcing its cancellation, and despite an ongoing judicial investigation, but it refused to answer.
The Council clings to two reports from the SAS Legal Office which approve these contracts, even after the repeal of the exceptional legal framework of the pandemic, because it understands that its effects have continued to have an impact on the system. Sources around Moreno assure that the accusation of his three senior officials by the judge is “what is usual and reasonable in a state of law so that the people denounced can defend their innocence”.
“The SAS and the manager of the SAS have not yet received any notification,” they emphasize, reducing the ongoing accusation to “mere administrative formalities in the legal procedure.” “The SAS considers that all contracts comply with the law, it has the greatest respect for Justice and will collaborate in whatever is necessary with diligence and transparency, as it has done until now,” concludes. he.
