THE former president of the Balearic Islands has been embroiled in a PPE procurement scandal over a government contract for defective masks.
The PSOE government of Francina Armengol dished out a €3.7 million contract to a company that had no experience in the medical field at the height of the first Covid lockdown in May 2020.
The contract was awarded to the company Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas under a ‘fast track’ emergency process that did not involve a public tender – a tale that may sound familiar to British readers.
The masks ordered by Armengol, who is the current president of the Congress of Deputies in the central government in Madrid, turned out to be unusable as they ‘did not comply with regulations’.
Yet despite this, Armengol did not request a refund until July 6, 2023 – their last day in government before making way for the new incoming PP-Vox government.
The PP has already accused Armengol of ‘ignoring reports from the Anti-Corruption Office that warned the sole administrator of the company was already being investigated for corruption.’
The company saw its revenues sky rocket from zero to over €50 million throughout the Covid pandemic.
The investigation has already seen a number of arrests, most prominently Koldo Garcia Izaguirre, who was the former right-hand man of ex-transport minister Jose Luis Abalos.
Izaguirre was detained by the Guardia Civil, according to Spanish daily El Confidencial, after an investigation carried out by the Spanish High Court’s corruption prosecutor.
According to the sources who spoke to the newspaper, Izaguirre’s personal wealth has greatly increased in recent months.
In 2018, when Sanchez came to power thanks to a successful motion of no confidence in Congress, Izaguirre was appointed the right-hand man of the new transport minister, Jose Luis Abalos.
The investigation is focusing on the emergency contracts that were signed by the department to purchase masks and other medical equipment during the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain.
Izaguirre is alleged to have played a part in the negotiations to make these purchases, while the Transport Ministry was also involved in deals with airlines to fly the material into Spain.
Prosecutors suspect that Izaguirre received bribes for these contracts and then subsequently has tried to launder the money.
Twenty people have been arrested so far in the anti-corruption probe.
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