Canary Islands Government Accused of Corruption in Mask Procurement

The document also revealed that, despite being a company whose social object was not medical supplies, a field in which it lacked experience, the government of Ángel Víctor Torres awarded it 9.75 million euros for masks whose price was above the market rate. According to the latest report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil, Aldama, who, according to the report, managed to infiltrate the Government of the Canary Islands through the former advisor to José Luis Ábalos, had a very close relationship with Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas S.L., whose mediation for the import of medical supplies from China it offered to several ministries and different regional presidencies. Hence, as revealed in the report, both pressured then-Canary Islands president and current Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, to speed up the payment of pending invoices. In 2020, when Soluciones de Gestión began operating in the archipelago, entrepreneurs linked to Koldo García obtained 18% of their income from the Government of the Canary Islands. The first contract between the administration of Ángel Víctor Torres and the investigated company was formalized on April 22, 2020, for a value of 4.7 million euros and with no references to the contractor. Two weeks later, on May 4, the regional administration made a second order valued at 5 million euros. The socialist government of the Canary Islands, as is also proven in the UCO report, was alerted to the irregularities in the contracting of the main company investigated in the bribery scheme due to the obstacles put up by the head of the economic service of the Canary Health Service, Ana María Pérez. A way of acting that frustrated both the alleged leaders of the network and former President Torres, who gave the order to satisfy the former advisor to Ábalos. Lack of diligence The report prepared by the Court of Auditors, which exposes the management of Ángel Víctor Torres and demonstrates that the company linked to Víctor de Aldama and Koldo García was prioritized despite not having demonstrable solvency, points out that «there is no record, in any of the verified files, that the audited entities verified the capacity of the contractors nor that the required economic, financial and technical solvency to carry out the awards has been demanded». Although the report does recognize that «these are emergency contracts», it makes it clear that «the current regulations do not exempt the administration from complying with these requirements, without the files justifying the possibility of verifying these emergency requirements or other reasons that prove this impossibility». The document from the Court of Auditors also recommended that «in order to mitigate the risks that exceptional and lasting situations can cause, the Government of the Canary Islands is recommended to establish, within the framework of a contingency plan, with the participation of technical personnel, both health and administrative, the formal channels necessary to attend to the needs that may arise, always observing the principles of effectiveness and celerity». It was following the outbreak of the health crisis in 2020 and after changing its social object to «general services for the constitution, financing, maintenance and operation of companies and institutions, research, development, commercial and industrial application, exploitation, sale and distribution of electricity generation systems», when the company based in Zaragoza multiplied its activity and, consequently, its profits. A report from the Court of Auditors of the Canary Islands - the regional Court of Auditors -, which examined all the processes carried out at the time, already warned of the «dubious legality» of the contract awarded to the firm of Rotaeche, of which the agent Víctor de Aldama acted as representative and Koldo García as collector. The same document prepared by the UCO researchers and already in the hands of the judge also proves the minister Torres's complicity with Víctor de Aldama and Koldo García to speed up collections. The company, which is now under the microscope of Supreme Court judge Leopoldo Puente, who is trying to clarify if it received favorable treatment upon learning the terms of the alarm decree decreed by the Government and consequently the requirements for medical supplies that were going to be produced, went from billing zero to 53 million euros in a few months. Just forty days after the declaration of the health emergency by the Council of Ministers. In the conversations intercepted by the UCO between Koldo and Torres, it is observed that the minister not only did not take into account the technical criteria of the civil service, but when some officials alerted to the possible irregularities that might be being committed, the former president of the Canary Islands even went so far as to threaten the former Ábalos advisor with «blowing up» the head of the economic area. Sources from the department headed by Ángel Víctor Torres, on Monday night, when the UCO report was still partially known, defended that «it is proven that the correct action was taken in the acquisition of masks, as endorsed by the intervention, the Court of Auditors of the Canary Islands and the Court of Auditors». The official slowed down the procedures for the payment of the invoices demanded by Aldama and Koldo, considering that the individual cost of the masks was much higher than other offers and this forced her to carry out a greater verification of the procedure. The main company in the network that operated around the Ministry of Transport with the masks, Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas S.L. Despite the fact that the company had no previous experience in the supply of medical supplies, Soluciones de Gestión, led by businessman Íñigo Rotaeche, who was arrested and is under investigation, managed to win 11.93% of the contracts, becoming, together with three other companies - two of them with experience in the sector - the main contractors through the emergency procedure. The company, which according to the registry was created in the year 2017, had little activity during its first years of life.