The Koldo case, which broke out last week and completely embroiled the former adviser of José Luis Ábalos, is one of dozens of cases that have been opened over the last three years for the millionaire contracts that the administrations had to to offer urgently during the bloodiest period of covid, when more than 800 people died every day from the virus.
The policies put in place to try to stop the spread of the virus introduced the possibility of awarding public contracts without competition. In those days of March 2020, millionaire contracts were offered to acquire health equipment, and it was carried out through the emergency route. Then, Pandora’s box was opened. Some senior officials of that time remember how at that time getting masks was the closest thing to what is commonly called a “Persian market”. The Prosecutor’s Office knew from the beginning that this would cause problems.
During the audit, the Court of Auditors already detected that a series of companies had taken a large part of the awards. In addition, he warned that in a significant number of cases the capacity of the awardees to be able to sign contracts with the public sector, nor the economic, financial and technical solvency, nor the social object, was not verified. However, he acknowledged that, despite the fact that improvements could have been made, no irregularities were detected.
After the pandemic, complaints and accusations rained down. Mainly, they came from political parties in the opposition that denounced the current government. Thus, the PSOE, Podemos and Sumar have denounced regional governments of the PP, mainly that of Madrid, and the PP has denounced various central government administrations.
Since then, both the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office as well as the European and provincial ones have been reviewing each of the allegations, including some that implicate the Ministry of Health of Salvador Illa.
Most are archived. As the Anti-corruption prosecutor who is now handling the Koldo case recalls in the complaint, “the emergency situation caused by the pandemic meant the need to equip public administration workers with health protection material in a context of enormous increase in demand for this class of goods”. The European public procurement directive provides that in a situation of unpredictability and urgency, the public administration can award a contract directly to a preselected company, instead of using a normal competitive procedure. “The purpose of this exception is for public buyers to purchase essential supplies and services in the shortest possible time,” he says.
For this reason, the contracts investigated in the Koldo case awarded by Adif, State Ports and the Ministry of the Interior do not present “significant irregularities”. There were no errors such as the lack of solvency of the successful tenderer in terms of compliance with the requirements required in any emergency public contract award process. The illegality does not come from the awarding, but from the tricks before and after.
In this case, what is being investigated is that Koldo García, as advisor, then, to the Minister of Transport, agreed with a businessman, Víctor de Aldama, so that through a front company they presented themselves to the offer . In return, some juicy commissions, which in the case of García would amount to 1.5 million euros. When they pulled the strings of the awarded company, they discovered not only the real administrators, but also that part of the public money that remained from profits – more than 20 million euros – was moved to shell companies in countries like now Brazil and Luxembourg, which is why the crime of money laundering is being investigated.
Not only that. The company had no activity. It would have been created by Juan Carlos Cueto, although he did not appear at any time in the hiring process, despite the fact that he spoke with Koldo García and he knew who was really behind the company with contracts that amounted to 54 million euros, Management Solutions.
The reason is that Cueto was being investigated for a bribery case. As a result of the police investigation, “he would cease to appear on the corporate bodies of the mercantile companies of the group (Cueto Group). However, as indicated in the police report, his participation in the business activity would not have ceased”, warns the prosecutor.
Ábalos acknowledged in an interview with La Sexta on Saturday that this company had presented as previous experience to obtain the contract the accreditation of having participated in a hospital in Angola. In addition, he recalled that Soluciones de Gestión advanced the money to the ministry with a bond as payment in advance which, after the contract was collected, was returned to him. “Not all companies can pay this bond”, explained the former minister, who distanced himself from the operation and defended the legality of the hiring.
