Salvador Illa appeared this Monday in Congress to testify in the commission investigating the purchase of medical supplies during the pandemic, and he did so by defending the management carried out by the Ministry of Health, which he directed in person: “The action was correct, but a few took advantage of the situation,” he said before acknowledging that he met Koldo “once”, the alleged mastermind of the corruption plot: “I referred him to the technicians and they concluded that nothing was going to be bought. I did what I have to do”.
The now PSC candidate for the Catalan elections of the next 12-M has detailed that, faced with the health collapse, and having confirmed the “impossibility” of satisfying the socio-health needs through the material offered by Spanish and Spanish suppliers, the Government resorted to the Chinese market in a context of “many pressures” from which there were many “fraud attempts” for which, he noted, the Ministry of Health launched “rigorous analyzes” to reference the seriousness of the suppliers and monitor the price range.
“Many of these proposals were apparently made by opportunists and upstarts, on several occasions the prices were disproportionate and even some offers were directly considered as scam attempts,” he stressed when asked by the PP spokesperson, Elías Bendodo, determined, without success. , in relating Illa to the members of the Koldo plot.
Despite the “opportunists”, Illa has declared that “in no way does this minority represent nor can it overshadow the exemplary behavior demonstrated by Spanish society, much less the exemplary effort made by public health” whose performance, with the Ministry at the forefront, has defended as “prudent, responsible, diligent and effective” so that citizens have the necessary material to protect themselves against the virus.
The former Minister of Health, who appeared armed with a “detailed” 32-page report that he delivered to all parliamentary groups, explained that on March 20, 2020, just six days after the declaration of the state of alarm, The first massive purchase was made from health. “And in the following 20 days, until April 10, a total of 28 contracts were closed, which ensured sufficient supply for the following months, with a total amount of 750 million euros. In total, and thanks to these contracts , 642 million surgical masks, 106 million FFP2 and FFP3 masks, 58 million gloves, 3 million protective overalls, 550,000 protective glasses, 6,298 respirators and 0.5 million diagnostic tests were purchased,” he justified.
During the interrogation of the PP, carried out by Bendodo, the former Minister of Health has assured that he only saw the advisor of former Minister José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García, on one occasion and has rejected as “false” that his ministry bought the main company investigated in the plot, Management Solutions.
“I did not authorize any purchase of anything. My ministry did not contract with Management Solutions, I don’t know whether to say it in Latin,” Illa stressed in response to the repeated, and repetitive, questions from PP leader Elías Bendodo, who has accused him of lying.
The harshest interventions have come, paradoxically, from Junts, ERC and the Comuns – allies in the Sumar parliamentary group. Three investiture partners of the socialist president, Pedro Sánchez. But also three rivals of the PSC in the next elections in Catalonia, as evidenced by the pre-campaign atmosphere that overshadowed their respective interventions.
The most incisive has been Miriam Nogueras. The Junts spokesperson has relied on international socio-health reports to reproach Illa that the “real data is so far away” from her version that it is far from being considered “efficient.” And for all this, she has accused the former Minister of Health of being “the main person responsible for the lack of transparency, foresight and rigor, and even for frivolity in the management of public money” during the pandemic.
Adding, for its part, has given a piece of lime and sand. Aware that some of its current leaders were part of the Government that managed the pandemic, the spokesperson for the commons, Aina Vidal, has limited her attacks to Illa, and not the Ministry of Health or the coalition Executive: “It seems strange that “No one would suspect that one of the companies, ultimately corrupt, was dedicated to the marketing of alcoholic beverage marketing products,” he reproached him.
Seeing the ease with which Illa was neutralizing the previous interrogations from PP and Vox, Gabriel Rufián has tried to take advantage of the “bare 10 minutes” of ERC’s turn in his favor. And knowing that the PSC leader would not have time to answer them all, he was the one who asked him the most questions: “How is it possible that a minister’s driver is the main supplier of contracts in the middle of a pandemic? What is decent about paying 3 million euros to some plaster manufacturers for respirators that did not arrive? .