Civil Guard warns that Puertos del Estado did not notify the Council of Ministers within the deadline of the purchase from the 'Koldo plot'

The agents point out that the entity took more than 30 days to notify the award

MADRID, 5 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Civil Guard has notified the judge of the so-called 'Koldo case' that Puertos del Estado did not notify the Council of Ministers within the deadline of the award of the contract for about 20 million euros that it signed with the company Soluciones de Gestiones, linked to the alleged plot. in which Koldo García, former advisor to former Minister of Transportation José Luis Ábalos, would have participated.

This is stated in a report, which appears in the summary of the case to which Europa Press has had access, in which the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Benemérita analyzes the documentation provided by Puertos del Estado related to file E/019 /20, related to the contract awarded to Management Solutions for the supply of masks.

It is worth remembering that this same Tuesday the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has dismissed the Secretary General of State Ports, Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, for his responsibility in said award, as Ministry sources have confirmed to Europa Press.

In the Civil Guard report, signed on September 26, 2022, the agents highlight among their conclusions that one of the data "to take into account" regarding said file is the "excess of the deadline for communicating the agreement."

The Armed Institute specifies that this type of communication "must be made to the Council of Ministers within a maximum period of 30 days" and in this case this did not happen. He assures that "it can be seen how the award date corresponds to March 21, 2020 and communication is not given within the due period", because it is not until April 28 of that year that the document is sent to the Council of Ministers. .

Regarding this point, it also emphasizes that "said agreement is outlined in the summary of the Council of Ministers held on May 5, 2020."

As stated in the report, the Benemérita drafts these conclusions after on May 26, 2022 Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena, acting as president of State Ports, complied with the request made to the institution.

Rodríguez Dapena instructed the head of the contracting area and the head of said department to provide a digital copy of the file in question on a flash drive -- "4GB and yellow in color with the State Ports logo" -- " "made up of 51 pages".

In its analysis, the Civil Guard points out that one day before the contract was awarded, Management Solutions prepared "various documents in order to provide them to the Public Administration", including a proforma invoice in which it was detailed that within 48 hours, eight million FFP2 type masks would be supplied at a unit price of 2.5 euros, which translated into about 20 million euros. This documentation also specified that 50% of the value of the offer would be paid in advance (against issuance of a bank guarantee).

The agents point out that, subsequently, Puertos del Estado issued the end user declaration stating that by resolution of its president the acquisition of masks had been ordered from the company Soluciones de Gestión.

According to the researchers, on March 25, 2020, the proforma invoice was modified to specify that the delivery time will be "according to freight/factory provision" instead of 48 hours and that the type of mask changes from KN95/FFP2, in instead of "antivirus dustproof medical mask K112 respirator FFP2".

Along these lines, the Armed Institute adds that on March 27 the invoice is issued with other changes: delivery will be made in three staggered installments, the Administration is enabled to charter a plane on its own which would entail a discount of 224,000 euros and Modifies the technical sheet of the mask.

Between April 1 and December 9, Management Solutions issues about 11 invoices for the services provided for the supply of masks. An invoice from August and another from December state in the description that it is the replacement of a defective batch of medical supplies, according to the information collected by the Civil Guard.

From the Benemérita they emphasize that in the minutes of receipt of merchandise, except in the record of the fourth delivery, four people appear during the event: the first of them, Gabriel Argüelles Pintos, as deputy director of the General Administration of State Ports as a representative of the administration; José Luis Arroyo, as head of the finance and subsidies department of State Ports; Manuel Ortiz, as head of the audit department of State Ports, and Arturo Pérez Martínez as representative of Management Solutions.