The then Director of Emergencies of the Ministry of Transport, Ruben Eladio Lopezcommunicated that August 25, 2020 to Koldo Garciathe bad news: «The masks have not even passed the first test. “They will not be valid.” He was referring to the fact that the National Institute of Safety and Health at Work in Seville – dependent on the Ministry of Labor – did not validate the merchandise that the company in the plot, Management Solutions, had sold for two million euros to the Government of the Canary Islands. There were 837,800 masks.
This confirmed what the Risk Prevention Service of the Canary Islands health system had been saying since April. Of the 2.75 million masks purchased, at least those 837,800 masks were not suitable for health use as FFP2. The general director of Economic Resources of the Canarian Health Service, Ana María Pérezlogically refused to pay at least the two million expected for that item due to non-compliance.
The president of the Canarian Government at the time and current minister, Angel Victor Torresmaintained contact with Koldo far beyond the “institutional” that he declared under promise to tell the truth in the Senate and, according to the UCO, he was fully involved in order to be able to pay the entire contract at all costs.
Also his trusted vice-counselor of the Presidency, Antonio Olivera. Since April 30, the latter had a letter from the managing director of the Canary Islands University Hospital Complex, Mercedes Cuetoin which he told him that “the suitability of the mask is ruled out”, because FFP2 was needed for medical use and they were not. Another official, Salome Ballesteroshad warned in vain on those emergency dates: “We have bought cheaper masks.”
That did not put Olivera on guard. “In a conversation on April 30, 2020, and despite the problems that the masks supplied by Management Solutions seem to present, Antonio Olivera informs Koldo that the 50% payment process has already been launched,” says the UCO report.
The initial order was 6.8 million, but not only did all that end up being paid, but more orders were activated so that the plot had already collected close to 10 million by mid-August. The transfers were flowing, thanks to the fact that, as Torres informed Koldo in July, he himself had given “the precise blow on the table to end all this.” It did not seem to matter that a good part of the first award remained unvalidated.
How to validate it? It was decided to request a second opinion from an institution specialized in that year of pandemic, such as the one mentioned in Seville, to see if it contradicted that of the Canarian health workers. Koldo, who was earning 10,000 euros a month from Victor de Aldama To solve these problems of the plot with the Administration, he also mobilized his boss.
On August 24, 2020, the minister José Luis Ábalos He told his advisor that the Sevillian institute, dependent on Labor, would soon have the results. “Ábalos contacted Koldo to inform him that, according to what the Minister of Labor told him, the certification of the masks would be available the next day.” In fact, what he had advanced Yolanda Diaz to Ábalos was correct, the result was about to fall, but the problem is that it ended up being negative, according to the aforementioned message from Ruben Eladio to Koldo the next day.
Was the Canarian president outraged? Nothing of the sort. Nor in the next setback, when Ana María Pérez herself – “that aunt”, Koldo cursed – in October refused to pay for another item, because it came labeled from China as “non-medical”, “adding that she has reports from prevention services rejecting similar masks”, according to the UCO document. To do? Koldo had put the company director, Inigo Rotaechein contact with Conrado Dominguezdirector of the Canarian Health Service and also a supporter of paying like Chief Torres. “Answer that and that’s it,” Domínguez advised Rotaeche when he told him that the “non medical” label was unimportant and could be removed.
Indeed, the label was removed and the obstacle overcome. The Canary Islands Government ended up paying 12.2 million euros to Management Solutions between 2020 and 2021.
A previous report from the UCO maintains that the Canary Islands Government arranged for the 837,800 masks by agreeing in November with Management Solutions that the Canary Islands would keep them as non-FFP2 “surgical masks.” Of course, “valuing them at the market price of the month of April”, much more expensive than that of November when this agreement was closed. The order was completed with 555,000 FFP2 masks so that the company would also receive the planned 2 million. All of this, “7 months after it was hired, despite having been processed as an emergency,” according to the UCO.
“Thank you very much, but it’s obvious that you have to do all these things yourself,” Koldo thanked Torres. The minister assured yesterday that “the company had supplied material and had the right to that payment” in the first of the many explanations he will have to give.