Anti-corruption archived the complaint about the covid contracts of the Ayuso Government that is now being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office

The Spanish Prosecutor's Office considered that the denunciation of United We Can was based on a "suspicion"

MADRID, 9 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

On May 18, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office filed the complaint filed by the United We Can parliamentary group in the Madrid Assembly about a series of contracts awarded by the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Community of Madrid (CAM) to two companies for more of 17 million euros, considering that it was based on mere "suspicion", a different assessment from that made by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), which has chosen to investigate the matter.

This was agreed by the anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Romeral in a decree, to which Europa Press has had access, where he responded to the complaint filed by the deputy spokesperson for the 'purple' group in the Madrid Assembly, Alejandra Jacinto, for alleged traffic crimes of influence and of negotiations and activities prohibited to public officials and of abuses in the exercise of their function by said contracts.

Romeral considered that "the complainant does not provide any information or documentation, not even circumstantial, that reveals the intervention of any public official who, through his actions, has facilitated the achievement of the contracts or caused irregularities in their processing, to determine the award of the themselves to any natural or legal person".

For the prosecutor, "the basis of his complaint is in the suspicion that the opacity that he sees in the annual accounts presented by the Vindoré company" or in the fact that annual accounts of this and the commercial company Air Global Media are missing.

The representative of the Public Ministry explained that "the suspicion of the complainant cannot be the basis of the investigation that she demands, since the elements that support it are not enough to have them as indications of the crimes that she denounces."

"If we admit the suspicion as a reason to address the complainant's claim, we would find ourselves facing a prospective investigation, prohibited" by Spanish law, stressed Romeral, who consequently ordered it filed.

Instead, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) has chosen to investigate the contracts denounced by United We Can, seeing signs that there could be an "artificial price increase" of the same that would result in alleged crimes of fraud and fraud to the community budget , since they would have been nurtured with EU funds, as stated in two decrees issued on June 3.

According to said complaint, Vindoré -dedicated to the marketing of sparkling wines to which gold particles are added-, would have been awarded three contracts from the CAM between March and April 2020 for a total of 7,740,000 euros to obtain medical, individual protection and healing surgical material to supply pavilion number 10 of IFEMA, where a field hospital was set up for covid patients.

In the case of Air Global Media, which would have broadcasting as its main activity, it would have obtained four contracts between May and June 2020 for the acquisition of surgical care material and dressings, masks and overalls, both for the IFEMA hospital and for the health centers dependent on the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS), for a total of 10,060,500.

In any case, the EPPO clarifies that, in this initial phase, it will focus on "verifying the facts and specifying possible indications of the commission of criminal acts, whose contours appear at this moment diffuse, with no elements available that determine at this procedural moment the specific imputation of any person".

The Anticorruption criteria and the EPPO already collided last March over the contract linked to Tomás Díaz Ayuso, the brother of the Madrid president. Then, the State Attorney General, Dolores Delgado, decided that the former would take charge of the investigative proceedings related to the contract and that the European Public Prosecutor's Office investigate the possible embezzlement, fraud and bribery in relation to European funds.