Another Spanish Socialist figure has been splashed by the Koldo face mask corruption case: the current speaker of Congress, Francina Armengol, who was, at the time of the pandemic, president of the Balearic Islands government. Her adminstration not only awarded contracts on a hand-picked basis to Soluciones de Gestión SL, the mask supplier firm at the centre of the scandal, but it is also claimed that they did so with the aim of financing the purchases with European funds when it was already known that the material did not meet the necessary requirements for its use. According to the conservative digital daily El Español, the autonomous government of the Mediterranean island group first agreed to the purchase of masks from Soluciones de Gestión, paid the company 3.7 million euros from the Balearic budget, received the material and, later, upon verifying that they had been defrauded, ordered the licitation documents to be modified to be able to attribute this expenditure to the European Regional Development Fund. That is, to the EU budget.
This is what is stated in the documentation that is in the hands of the current Balearic government, led by the People's Party (PP) politician Marga Prohens. In fact, the Balearic executive is to pursue a private prosecution in the case being conducted in the National Audience, in line with the accusations brought by anti-corruption prosecutors. An additional important element is that these 3.7 million euros will be investigated by European prosecutors as EU finance is involved, with a possible misappropriation of European Union funds.
The timing of the changes in the xx tender contract
The Balearic government of Francina Armengol placed the order with the company linked to the Koldo case on April 29th, 2020. The company backed by Koldo García, personal advisor to the former Spanish transport minister José Luís Ábalos, committed to deliver 1.5 million FFP2 KN95 masks from China. Ábalos, at the time, was competent to purchase this material. On May 5th, just one week later, the health service of the Balearic Islands transferred the sum of 3.7 million euros, at a price of 2.55 euros per unit. However, the executive found on June 8th that the masks did not meet the requirements, a month after receiving the material.
Armengol ordered to change the tenders
Despite knowing that the material did not meet the requirements, a month later (July 3rd), the Armengol executive began to process the modification of the contracts in order to substitute European funds for the 3.7 million euros spent with Balearic money. They then sent the file to be able to complete the procedures to Spain's General Directorate for European funds, responsible for the control, monitoring and evaluation of funds coming from the EU. The Spanish finance ministry under María Jesús Montero gave the green light to this operation.
It was three years after the formalization of the contract that the Armengol government sought damages from the company Soluciones de Gestión SL, on July 6th, 2023: precisely when the current speaker of Congress knew that she was losing the elections in the islands that were to be held two weeks later. Specifically, the claim registered at that point sought compensation of 2,626,584.40 euros. In fact, at the time that the compensation case was registered, the Armengol administration knew that the prosecutors were already acting against this operation.