The president of the Court of Accounts will also attend the Lower House and the minister’s former Chief of Staff will also attend the Upper House.
MADRID, 21 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The investigative commissions on the purchase of medical supplies during the pandemic begin their phase of appearances this Monday, receiving in the Senate Koldo García Izaguirre, the former advisor to former Minister José Luis Ábalos in Development, who gives name to the plot to collect bribes for obtaining public contracts, and in Congress to the former Minister of Health and current PSC candidate for the Generalitat, Salvador Illa.
After several unsuccessful attempts, the Upper House located García Izaguirre last Thursday and summoned him to eleven in the morning on Monday. Like all those appearing, Ábalos’ former advisor is obliged to appear before the commission, but he has no obligation to respond to the parliamentary groups as he is being investigated by the National Court.
Thus, it is foreseeable that he will take advantage of his right to remain silent to preserve his defense strategy and not compromise his judicial statements. Even if you do, the spokespersons for the different groups will be able to ask you any questions they deem appropriate during the time allotted to them.
In both the Senate and Congress, those appearing who wish to do so may make an initial intervention of ten minutes before being questioned, but the interrogations will be longer in the Upper House and more agile in the Lower House.
Specifically, in the Senate the groups will have 30 minutes each to ask their questions if there is only one person appearing or twenty if more than one appearance is scheduled in the same session. In Congress, the time for each interrogation has been set in all cases at 15 minutes.
While Koldo García appears in the Senate, the president of the Court of Accounts, Enriqueta Chicano, will appear in Congress, who two weeks ago already went to the Chamber to present the result of the seven audits that this body has carried out on emergency contracts. for the purchase of anticovid material subscribed in 2020 by different ministries, some communities, public companies and autonomous organizations.
The inspector detected companies that took over contracts, delays in the execution of some of them and some defects in the motivation for their urgency, matters for which the different groups may ask their top person. The court carried out specific audits on the ministries of Development, where Koldo worked, and Health, which signed most of them.
The Congressional commission will receive Illa at four in the afternoon, who has an appointment in the Senate two days later. His ministry closed the bulk of the awarded contracts analyzed by the Court of Auditors, worth 513 million euros.
The auditor reported various incidents, such as resolutions, delays in execution that led to the extension of the deadlines and delays in compliance with the new ones, as well as requests to replace various defective materials or to refund the amount. In some cases in which the material did not meet the requirements, replacement of the material was not required.
Illa’s appearance in Congress will overlap with the appearance in the Senate of her chief of staff in the ministry, Víctor Francos, who the PP will ask about his contacts with the ringleaders of the ‘Koldo case’ and if that was the reason for his replacement first in the ministry and then as president of the Higher Sports Council (CDS).
The ‘popular’ are interested in knowing if, from Health, Víctor Francos participated in the purchase of masks, respirators, hydroalcoholic gels, nitrile gloves, disposable overalls or swabs. And also if he mediated the purchase of medical supplies by any other administration managed by a leader of the Socialist Party, such as the Canarian government chaired by the current minister Ángel Víctor Torres.
Between his departure from Health and his arrival at the CSD, Francos, who is a member of the PSC, was in the Government under Miquel Iceta in two ministries, first as Secretary of State for Territorial Policy and then as Secretary General of Culture. It was he who appointed him Secretary of State for Sports in June 2023.
In the Senate, appearances will resume on Thursday with two former senior Health officials during Illa’s time. These are Patricia Lacruz, who was general director of the Common Portfolio of Services of the National Health and Pharmacy System and Alfonso Jiménez, at the time general director of the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA).
