Eduardo Colom Palma

Palm

Updated Thursday, February 22, 2024-13:53

The batch of 1.4 million masks that the Balearic Government bought from the company investigated by the Civil Guard and linked to

José Luis Ábalos

' advisor was never used to combat the pandemic.

The batch of protectors supplied in May 2020 by the company Soluciones de Gestión y Apoyo a Empresas SL is still stored today in a warehouse of the public Health Department of the Balearic Islands (IB Salut).

They were never used by the health personnel for whom they were theoretically acquired despite the fact that the Executive then chaired by

Francina Armengol

(PSOE) disbursed 3.7 million public euros for them, including a management commission.

The reason: the masks did not meet the quality standards that health authorities required for the FFP2 masks that were supplied to staff and patients in hospitals and health centers.

The chronology

The Balearic Government received the item in May 2020, after articulating the purchase through a direct contract under the umbrella of the state of emergency in which Spain found itself due to the pandemic.

There was no competition and the purchase was made directly from the company Soluciones de Gestión, based in Zaragoza and unknown until then to the IB Salut.

On May 25 of that year, the Balearic Government asked the

National Center for Protection Means

to analyze the quality of the material received.

On June 8, he received the results of the analysis, which, after sampling, determined that the masks received did not meet sufficient quality conditions.

This caused the masks to be removed and stored, without even having been distributed among the staff, according to the official information that the Government managed at the time and as sources from the Health Department now confirm.

On

July 19, 2022,

the Civil Guard demanded in writing that the Government hand over the file on the purchase of the masks, which was already the subject of a secret investigation.

The Judicial Police carried out orders from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, and took the entire file, communicating it to the then director of Management and Budgets of the Health area of ​​the regional government,

Manuel Palomino

, who was later general director of Health.

Despite all these circumstances, the Armengol Government did not begin a process to claim the money paid until July 6, 2023, the same day that the political color in the Executive changed, leaving Francina Armengol to be relieved of the position. by

Marga Prohens (PP)

.

That same day, the Government issued a report in which it resolved the file and agreed to the claim of 2.6 million paid for the material.

The reports determined that an extra cost had been paid when hiring a type of mask that did not correspond to the one provided.

In the absence of resolving this claim, the masks remain stacked in a warehouse in Palma, with no plans to put them to any use.

The Prohens Government has announced that it will launch an audit to determine everything that has happened and clarify responsibilities.