The president of the Court of Accounts will also attend, after Koldo, Illa and her former chief of staff were present last week
MADRID, 28 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Senate investigation commission on the ‘Koldo case’ continues its round of appearances this week and the president of the Court of Accounts, Enriqueta Chicano, will pass through it on Monday, while on Tuesday it will be the turn of the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdan.
This commission faces its second week of appearances after Koldo García himself, the former Minister of Health Salvador Illa, his former chief of staff, Víctor Francos, and a former senior official of the Ministry of Health during the pandemic.
And this week it will be the turn of the president of the Court of Accounts, Enriqueta Chicano, who already appeared last week in the Congressional commission on the purchase of masks, in addition to the ‘number three’ of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán.
Santos Cerdán comes from the PSOE of Navarra, a federation to which the former Ábalos advisor who gives its name to this investigative commission also belonged. This is one of the main reasons that the PP alleges for summoning him in this forum, although the PSOE rejects any connection to call him to appear and they believe that it goes beyond the initial purpose of the commission.
The president of the Court of Accounts will appear this Monday in the Senate investigation commission after she did the same last week in the Congressional commission, as will happen with many interveners who are summoned in both forums.
From Congress, the PP questioned the work of the Court of Accounts by monitoring the contracts for anticovid material signed during the pandemic, going so far as to affirm that the institution has dedicated itself to “whitewashing gross irregularities” and even “giving congratulations” to their authors.
For her part, Enriqueta Chicano defended that her audits have been “extensive, technically reliable and rigorous” carried out by “hundreds of public servants, auditors, lawyers and officials of all kinds.” While audits were carried out, the Cortes renewed the Court in 2021, but the new plenary session adopted the work of its predecessors and the seven reports were approved unanimously.
The person in charge of opening the round of appearances in the Senate investigation commission was Koldo García himself, who went to the Upper House last Monday morning after several unsuccessful attempts to locate him.
As expected, Koldo García took advantage of his right not to testify in the commission, alleging that he is being investigated for these events in the National Court. Of course, he also wanted to defend himself against different questions from the groups and assured that he has worked his entire life and has done “the right thing.”
That same Monday afternoon, the investigation commission welcomed the appearance of the former director of Salvador Illa’s cabinet in the Ministry of Health, Víctor Francos, who admitted that he met twice with Koldo García to talk about health supplies and other time in relation to a ‘software’ system, although he maintained that in none of these meetings did he ask for any “shortcut” in hiring.
When asked by the PP, Víctor Francos admitted that in one of his three meetings with Koldo García, Salvador Illa himself warned him that he was going to contact him, although he did not clarify which meeting he was referring to.
The appearances continued last Wednesday, when the former Minister of Health during the first months of the pandemic, Salvador Illa, paraded through the Senate, giving new information about his meeting with Koldo García.
As revealed by Illa, Koldo García showed up at the Ministry of Health without an appointment, received him because he was an advisor to another minister (José Luis Ábalos) and when he saw that he was promoting a company to buy anticovid material, he referred him to his head of cabinet, Víctor Francos. The meeting lasted “a few minutes” and he did not buy anything, he reiterated.
And in Thursday’s session, the former general director of the Common Portfolio of the National Health and Pharmacy System Service during the pandemic, Patricia Lacruz Gimeno, assured that Illa never referred her to any meeting with Koldo. Likewise, she said she did not know if offers had reached the Ministry’s communication channel from the company linked to the plot, since nothing was sent to her personally from this entity.
