A political and health earthquake is shaking the
Canary Islands these days after the investigation of the case known as
the Masks case was
reactivated this week
, which is investigating the person in charge of
the Canary Health Service
(
SCS
), its former director of Economic Resources and the administrator of the winning company, a a car buying and selling company that received, at the critical point of the coronavirus pandemic,
four million public euros for the purchase of a million masks that never reached public hospitals in the Canary
Islands, reports Canarias 7.
Since last April 8, the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria delegation of the
Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime has
been investigating the emergency contracts of the Canarian Government for the acquisition of medical supplies in the midst of the Covid pandemic.
After detecting a possible criminal act, an investigation was launched that culminated in the
criminal complaint against the health officials of the Canary Islands
by the prosecutor Javier Ródenas.
This Monday Ana María Pérez
, former general director of Economic Resources of SCS and investigated for administrative prevarication and influence peddling,
declared in the Investigating Court number 7 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria .
She would be
the manager of the irregular processing of the contract signed between the SCS and the car buying and selling company RR7 United SL
, at the request of the director of the public body,
Conrado Domínguez
, who continues in office and will also declare as investigated the next Thursday.
Ignoring the warnings of two senior officials about the danger of paying the agreed four million euros in advance without any guarantee, and always according to the prosecutor's accusation,
Ana María Pérez would have managed the purchase of one million FFP3 masks that turned out to be FFP2
, awarded by his superior without knowing the successful bidder and for the benefit of a friend who acted as commission agent.
The sole administrator of RR7 United SL,
Rayco Rubén González
, will also appear on Thursday, investigated for
aggravated fraud and money laundering
, after considering the Prosecutor's Office that he received the money and kept it without delivering the agreed material.
An unsigned contract created by WhatsApp
The Canarias 7 investigation sheds light on a contract that it defines as
"the antithesis of what is expected from a million-dollar negotiation with a public administration"
.
The award was conceived in WhatsApp conversations between the commission agents and the director and director of Economic Resources of the SCS, so that there was not even contact between the awarding administration and the owner of the winning company.
According to the investigation of the Canarian newspaper,
the commission agent Samuel Machín
sent a message to the businessman on May 5, 2020 with a photo and this text: "Conrado [director of the SCS] is the younger of the two, so you can put expensive".
Machín's partner in Herbalife
Olvaldo Lastras
, a friend of Conrado, would have facilitated the connection.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more
Canary Islands
Masks
Corruption