The Consultative Council, the main advisory body of the public administrations of the Balearic Islands, has approved the nullity of the contract that the Executive of the socialist Francina Armengol signed with the Koldo conspiracy to pay 3.7 million euros for hundreds of fraudulent masks. According to the opinion to which ABC had access, the Consultative Commission considers the declaration of nullity as valid raised by a resolution of the Director General of the Health Service of the Balearic Islands, Javier Ureña, who alleged the lack of capacity and the absence of adequate technical solvency of Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas SL to provide high protection material to health workers.
After learning of the National Court’s investigation, the Government of the Balearic Islands has opened a new administrative route to recover the 3.7 million eurosplus the expenses that the former president of the Balearic Islands Francina Armengol (PSOE) paid to the company under investigation for the alleged bribes of the advisor of the former minister José Luis Ábalos to collect commissions on the sale of medical supplies in the middle of the pandemic. In April 2020, the socialist leader bought a batch of one and a half million defective masks that were never used and were allowed to expire in a warehouse. Although we have known since June that the masks does not meet the agreed qualityThe Socialist-controlled Health Service published a compliant report and made no complaints until three years later, after the election defeat.
The new people’s government continued the open complaint procedure, but still insisted who had very few options to thrivebased precisely on this conformity report sent shortly after the purchase and despite the fact that it was already known that the masks were not suitable for health use as certified by a report from the National Center for Protective Equipment.
In March, the current director general of the Balearic Islands Health Service (IB-Salut), Javier Ureña, informed the company Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a las Empresas, SL, of the start of this new administrative claim worth 3.7 million euros, and not 2.6 as proposed by the previous Armengol government. This calculation The company benefited from the Koldo landsince it was based on the claim for the price difference between the FFP2 mask paid for and the surgical mask received, even though it was a useless batch.
According to the analysis of the file, the Balearic Health Service considered that there were enough elements to declare the act awarding the contract null and void, it was therefore necessary to withdraw from the open procedure and initiate a new ex officio review and claim the full amount of 3.7 million euros.
The new administrative route opened by the Health Service was based on the lack of capacity to contract supply of this contract since the company’s corporate purpose did not provide for the purchase of masks. In addition, he alleged a lack of economic and technical solvency of the company.
To give greater solvency to the claim, IB-Salut requested an opinion from the Advisory Council, which has now approved its resolution with an opinion that has taken into account with the private vote of two councilors who, unlike the other eight, consider that the procedure was “impeccable” and that the alleged nullity can only be resolved in the criminal field.
The High Consultation Authority supports the arguments put forward by the Health Service to declare the contract null and void, stressing that the emergency award of the moment “did not mean that the substantive requirements and guarantees” contained in the contractual legislation were not enforceable.
According to the Advisory Board, at the time of awarding the contract, Management Solutions “did not have the capacity to act to carry out the activity” and did not have “prior administrative authorisation to carry out said activity”. Likewise, it points out that “at the time of award, the contractor did not prove that it met the technical solvency requirement” required by law.
