The Ministry of Transport was the one that chose the company that is at the epicenter of the Koldo plot to obtain the contracts under suspicion of State Ports, Adif and the Ministry of the Interior. This is clear from the statements of the senior officials of these organizations who have testified before the central operational unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. From the answers to these interrogations, to which he has had access, it is understood that being the then advisor and right-hand man of ex-minister José Luis Ábalos who put the company Soluciones de Gestión (SG) on the table for him to hire. The thesis of the Prosecutor’s Office and the judge is that Koldo García received bribes in exchange for facilitating this.
One of the most explicit interrogations was that of the then president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera. From this body, five million masks were bought in the middle of the pandemic for 12.5 million euros. As he explained, the order for Transport to be in charge of the purchase of masks was approved by the Council of Ministers. First it was decided that Ports de l’Estat would buy eight million masks, and then that the body she presided over, which depends on the ministry, would do it.
When questioned by agents, Pardo de Vera denied that he was pressured to award it directly to Soluciones de. What he did have was the “pressure” from Abalos and his cabinet for the award to be made with the greatest urgency possible and for the availability of masks to be quick. “On this issue, Koldo was very insistent, always on behalf of the minister.”
The witnesses have been passing the ball to each other without naming the person who decided on the front company used for the plot. Neither have they revealed who ordered, nor who suggested hiring the company.
The president of Adif knew who Koldo was. He was in the organization’s cabinet as a councillor. Not because of his technical knowledge, but as a trusted man of the minister “to be able to increase the salary”. Pardo de Vera also acknowledged that he was at the Ministry with businessman Víctor de Aldama meeting with Koldo. This businessman, president of the Zamora C.F., acknowledged in a tax inspection that he was the one who found out that the Ministry needed to acquire masks. As his company did not have the technical capacity for this, he contacted businessman Juan Carlos Cueto and they decided that SG would be the successful bidder.
According to the president, the steering committee was the one that decided that the general secretary would take over the entire matter of recruitment. The agents then interrogated Michaux Miranda, general director of people management at Adif and the person in charge of the contract. In his line of facts, it was the Secretary General of Ports, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, who gave him the name SG. They had already contacted this company that had delivered the complete batch of masks. It was he who gave him the contact of the person in charge of the company, Íñigo Rotaeche. Of course, the contract was signed by Pardo de Vera. About his relationship with Koldo: superficial, professional and punctual. Two more senior Adif officials point to Miranda as the person who provided the name.
The first contract came from State Ports, as set by the Ministry. According to the president at the time, Francisco Toledo, the person who maintained “direct contact” with the ministry and who decided to hire SG was the general secretary, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, dismissed this same week by the current Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente. He told his president that the company was the only one qualified to take on the task. As he declared to the agents, Sánchez Manzanares received the name from a third person in the administration, “but he does not know who”. About Koldo, he only saw him once, even though he was Ports Councillor. He came one day to “collect the allowance”.
Sánchez Manzanares was given the name SG by the ministry, according to his own version when he testified. As they explained to him, the company offered it, they did the basic checks, specific to the emergency situation at the time, and since it met the legal requirements, they signed the contract. The person in charge of making the contract explained that there was no need for any public law but, since they were emergency contracts, a previously chosen company could be hired. As a result of these contracts, they established a friendship with Koldo, who called him to ask him political questions “because his training is limited”.
Jesús Manuel Gómez García, undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, also acknowledged that he maintains a relationship with Koldo today. In his case because, as he acknowledged in his statement, he continues to be the link with Ábalos, although both ceased in 2021. He acknowledged that he provided documentation of these contracts to Koldo to deliver them to the former minister
And the third contract, the Interior contract, was similar. José Antonio Rodríguez, general director of coordination and studies under the Secretary of State for Security, explained that they needed masks, he found out that Ports had already closed a contract, they provided him with the contact of Koldo, and someone, unspecified, facilitated the contact of SG. The investigators have indications that make them suspect that the guarantor, that kind of commercial agent of the company, was Koldo, a man of complete confidence of Ábalos.
