In other words, the Ministry of Transportation can only document the correct distribution of 1.2 million masks.
This is stated in the final report of said audit and, as EL ESPAÑOL has advanced, it also reflects that Ábalos, as minister, ordered that the order be duplicated, in just 38 minutes, entrusted to the company. SL Management Solutionsconsidered the epicenter of the Koldo casean alleged corruption system dedicated to collecting illegal commissions through public procurement.
The report divides these eight million masks into two blocks: half, intended for “public entities in the field of land transport” and the remaining 50%, for the benefit of “the land transport sector and MITMA personnel”. [Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana]”.
From the first block, 2,861,806 masks, or 7.26 million euros, are listed as “without proof of receipt”There is official confirmation of the delivery of 1,138,194 masks (2,888,167.28 euros).
“Regarding the four million masks intended for the land transport sector and MITMA personnel, there is no documentary evidence of delivery to MITMA, the Post Office, or the General Directorate of Land Transport at the time,” the audit report states.
Then, the file highlights that, “despite this lack of documentary evidence that the masks reached their final recipients”, Transport paid 100% of them. Specifically, this was done by the public entity Puertos del Estado, dependent on the ministry, which paid Raminatrans, the company in charge of the logistics of said contract at Barajas airport.
“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 destined for one or the other destination is unknown. There is no record of delivery to the Post Office of the 2,870,287 masks that (…) were to be distributed to the transporters. At the same time, there is no documentary evidence of the receipt by the autonomous communities of 463,740 masks (€1,176,508), nor is there documentary evidence of the receipt by the railway companies of 2,438 masks (€6,185)”, the report concludes.
Duplicate order
With only 38 minutes difference, the former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos I doubled the amount of an order made in 2020 to the company Soluciones de Gestión SL, considered the epicenter of what is called Koldo case.
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic at its peak, Transportes initially intended to acquire four million masks at a unit price of 2.5 euros. However, thanks to the intermediation in the award process of Koldo García, who was then an advisor to Ábalos, the ministry ended up acquiring eight million masks (for a total value of 20 million euros).
According to the aforementioned report, the Ministry of Transportation sent on March 20, 2020, at 7:55 p.m., a ministerial order signed by Ábalos for the purchase of up to 4 million masks from Management Solutions, investigated in the call. Koldo Landwhich a judge of the National Court is investigating.
However, just over half an hour later, at 8:33 p.m. on the same day, Ábalos sent a second order, doubling the amount of that order to eight million masks.
The conclusions of the audit report according to which Minister Ábalos thus adapted the demand to the supply that the company linked to the Koldo casewhich amounts to 20 million euros (2.5 euros per mask).
In fact, according to the document, Koldo García, then advisor to Minister Ábalos, had warned that “the supplier [Soluciones de Gestión] provided 8 million or nothing“.
Asked about this by the officials of the Inspection Service who prepared the report, the then Undersecretary of State for Transport, Jesús Manuel Gómez, indicated that he assumed that Koldo’s statements were supported by the minister. Especially since he verified that Ábalos himself had signed the second order, issued a few minutes later, to double the amount of the order.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente, last Friday, during his appearance in the Senate.
“So it might seem that the final estimate of the scale of the emergency, which doubled in just 38 minutes, would be more linked to the existing offer [la presentada por la trama de Koldo] than with the needs detected in relation to a certain period, 15 calendar days, which was at that time (March 20, 2024) the period officially planned for the state of alarm,” the file concludes.
The current Minister of Transport, Oscar Bridgeannounced this Friday the dismissal of Undersecretary of State Jesús Manuel Gómez and the chief of staff of the Adif, Michaux Mirandawho are summoned to testify next September as indicted before the investigating judge Koldo case.
In a Senate appearance, Puente attributed the two firings because there was a “loss of confidence” to the two management positions, after having taken note of the conclusions of the internal audit that it ordered last February.
On the other hand, as published by EL ESPAÑOL, the former minister Jose Luis Abalos He does not remember why he doubled, in just 38 minutes, the order of masks from the alleged corrupt conspiracy and sees a clear “political intention” in the internal audit known last Friday.
