SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 24 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, has reiterated this Tuesday that the Executive is going to recover all the money – four million plus interest – allegedly scammed in the mask contract signed with RR7 United.
“We are going to collect the debt”, he commented in an appearance before the plenary session of Parliament, stressing that either “in money or in kind”, without decanting to go to court if the administrative one continues to fail and if he detects a possible crime lifting of assets.
Trujillo has specified, however, that of all the supply contracts signed during the state of alarm there is only one in question –investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office– which he considers a management “success” given that all the toilets were always covered. with the necessary work material.
He pointed out that this company was chosen, despite not being from the health branch, because it had “contacts” and “logistical capacity” to undertake the operation and at a price of four euros per unit –for a million masks– – which was below a “totally distorted law of supply and demand”.
José Alberto Díaz Estébanez (CC-PNC) has regretted that in the parliamentary commission the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, has not presented new information on the case and wondered “which Health team” is responsible for the case of the masks.
He has accused Trujillo and Torres of being “silent” for 15 days since the facts were known and has criticized them for not going to court and on top of that “renegotiating” with a company that defrauded them. “They want to give the appearance of normality and four million have disappeared and nothing happens,” he ironized.
In his opinion, this contract “is a large-scale scandal” and a “big hit”, stressing that “there are more cases” such as tests for more than 700,000 euros. “There has been waste and lack of control,” he pointed out.
In this line, he has indicated that the Audience of Accounts has also questioned the processing of the contract and recalled how the Association in Defense of Public Health has requested resignations and dismissals.
ESPINO: THE CONTRACT WAS A MISTAKE
Vidina Espino (Mixed Group) has pointed out that the market was “chaotic” at that time, and aggravated by the fact that the central government did not activate centralized purchasing, and understands that the one who must appear before the Plenary is Antonio Olivera, Deputy Minister of the Presidency and that at that time he temporarily occupied the Canarian Health Service.
It has made the Government ugly that it signed a contract with a company dedicated to the automotive industry and without financial solvency. “It was a mistake and a mistake and now he has to do everything possible to recover the four million euros,” he said.
Melodie Mendoza (ASG) has defended the “transparency” of the counselor in providing all the information on the case and has accused the nationalists of “clouding” and trying to question the integrity of the Executive.
He pointed out that there were “many difficulties” at that time to obtain medical supplies and highlighted that the Ministry collaborates with the justice in the investigation. “No one has profited,” she stressed.
María del Río (Yes We Can) has admitted that there are still “doubts” about this case in which “some scoundrels have deceived” the autonomous community, for which she has asked to focus “efforts” on recovering the money. “You have to go to the end and purge responsibilities,” she added.
Esther González (NC) does not understand the “commotion” that has arisen in this case because there are no “intermediary” relatives of the operation, which was also carried out in 2020, in full alarm and at a time of great need and with the “unbridled” demand.
To demand responsibilities, he believes that the judicial route must already be opened to try to recover the money since the requests, through the administrative route, have not worked. “The alleged fraudsters have to pay, either by returning the money or with prison sentences,” she stressed.
WHY IT WAS PAID IN ADVANCE, ASK THE PP
Fernando Enseñat (PP) has criticized the signing of a contract with a car company “without guarantee or solvency” and that 1.3 million were dedicated to the payment of commissions in the midst of the “silence” of the Canarian president, Ángel Víctor Torres, who asks for “responsibilities” in other autonomous communities and does not do the same on the islands.
He has said that the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the SCS for prevarication and embezzlement of public funds and has questioned why it was paid in advance and they did not go to court when they did not receive the masks.
Marcos Hernández (PSOE) has branded Díaz-Estébanez a “pantomime” for forcing an appearance five days after the counselor intervened in the Health Commission, stressing that at that time the market was “very stressed” and that many health companies they had no guarantees to offer the material.
He has assessed that the administration has taken all the steps to annul the contract and recover the money and maintains that it acted “in accordance with the law” and that there is no doubt about the “honorability” of the charges that were involved in this contract.
