The Balearic president, Marga Prohens, has pointed out Francina Armengol as responsible for the Balearic branch of the Koldo case and has accused the current president of Congress of lying when she claims that it was the previous PSOE Government that demanded partial return of the money collected from more for the masks, an extra cost of 2.6 million euros.
Armengol spoke this Thursday in Congress about this case, almost a week after the scandal broke out, and said that it was his government that began the procedure to claim this money on the last day that Armengol was president, on December 6. July 2023. That same day, the Parliament elected Marga Prohens president of the Government.
Prohens has insisted that the socialist leader is lying. “She did not lift a finger,” she said this Tuesday in a tense plenary session of the Parliament in reference to the request for the return of the money. She has indicated that she has sufficient elements for the Balearic Executive to appear as a private accusation and has reiterated that her Government will go to the end “no matter who falls.” Prohens will demand a full refund of the 3.7 million paid for the masks.
The Balearic president has demanded that Armengol explain who or how the Ministry contacted the Government and whether the former president intervened in any of these mediations, in addition to why it took three years to claim the overpaid money, especially when the previous Executive was already aware that the Civil Guard was investigating the contracts with this company.
The socialist spokesperson in the Balearic Parliament, Iago Negueruela, has accused the Prohens Government of making leaks with the aim of mudslinging and launching traps and has defended that the file was not only done well, but that the amount overcharged was claimed. “Armengol has given all the explanations and we are proud of the management of the pandemic and of demanding responsibilities,” he said.
The socialist spokesperson has demanded that the Prohens Government clarify whether I have allowed the claim file to expire, as indicated in the order of the judge in the case. In his letter he states that telephone communications between those responsible for the Health Service and the company under investigation were no longer observed “so it can be inferred that the claims could have expired.” The judge considers that, if this were the case, “the exercise of influence by Koldo has had an effect” and the file would have expired on January 20.
The socialists are based on this paragraph from the judge to demand that Prohens say why he has allowed the file to expire and with which members of the Government those responsible for the company met. He has insisted that the file is alive thanks to the fact that the previous Government initiated it with a nullity and has announced a parliamentary offensive to find out the actions of Marga Prohens’ Executive during these months.
The Balearic PP denies the accusations of the socialists and the judge’s statements in his order. His spokesperson in the Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, has indicated that the start of the file to claim the money was signed on August 24, with Prohens in the Government and Armengol already as a deputy in Congress, so the expiration does not occur until on April 24 of this month.
“It is the PP Government that prevents this claim from expiring,” said Sagreras, who also recalled that a criminal claim has been initiated, which extends the deadlines indefinitely.
“Armengol has been outraged but does not explain how the case began, whether Ábalos or Koldo called him and why it has taken him three years to claim the money,” he said. Like Marga Prohens, he has accused the president of Congress of lying. “They didn’t move papers until they knew they had lost,” she lamented.
