Eduardo Colom Palma

Esteban Urreiztieta Madrid

Palm

Madrid

Updated Friday, March 1, 2024-02:07

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The Balearic PSOE has launched a race to try to publicly transfer responsibility for the expiration of the money claim file to the PP.

However, the chronological reconstruction guided by official documents indicates that the previous socialist government went almost three years without claiming the money even though it knew from its reports that the masks had not been useful, and that Anti-Corruption had been investigating it since 2022.

In fact, it only acted just before the elections, nine months after the Balearic Government of Francina Armengol (2019-2023) had been requested by the Civil Guard.

The case registered its first milestone on April 25, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic.

That day, an official from the company currently being investigated for the payment of commissions contacted the Government's Health area (IB-Salut) by email.

It was not a communication from a foreign company: he announced the already agreed shipment of a plane with 1.4 million masks.

As the company later alleged, there were parallel "telephone conversations" that no one has detailed.

The shipment arrived in Palma on April 27.

There were exactly 1,329 boxes.

On April 28, technicians confirmed for the first time that the masks could not be used in hospitals.

However, on May 4, shielded by the emergency situation, the Government processed the contract after entering the order into the system on the 29th.

On May 5, the payment order for the 3.7 million euros is issued.

And on the 8th it was elevated to the Governing Council chaired by Armengol along with other material contracts.

On May 22, 2020, the

National Center for Protective Means

(CNMP) is asked to analyze masks.

Four models are tested.

On June 8, the CNMP issued a devastating report in which it concluded that none of the samples analyzed met the quality of an FFP2 mask.

Despite this result, collected and outlined in the internal reports of the Government, on July 3 the file was sent to the General Directorate of European Funds so that the expense could be assumed by the EU.

As EL MUNDO

revealed

, the information that the cargo was defective was hidden for this purpose.

On December 11, the green light was given to financing with community funds.

On August 12 of that year, the Government had also issued the plot company a certificate of satisfaction for its service.

During the following year, at least two technicians warned that the masks were still in storage and would expire in a few months.

They were never used nor were there any complaints.

On July 13, 2022, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office orders the IB Salut to deliver a copy of the file and the Civil Guard arrives six days later to take the documents.

Between that date and March 20, 2023, silence.

"There is no evidence" of any management, according to official Health sources.

Nobody demanded payment or stopped the allocation of community funds.

That day, with only two months to go before the elections, the PSOE Government sent a letter to the company under investigation to inform it that it had breached the contract and that it would take the "appropriate measures."

No money was demanded: it was a first generic note that the company itself described as "extemporaneous."

On July 6, the day the new Balearic president,

Marga Prohens

(PP), was inaugurated, a report not communicated to the company quantified the claim at 2.6 million.

Armengol was no longer president.

On August 24, 2023, one month and 12 days after taking office, those responsible for Health of the Prohens Government signed the first claim for money addressed to the company.

On October 17, they gave him a deadline for allegations and between the 20th and 25th of that month, an emissary from the company collected the file in Palma and reviewed the immobilized merchandise.

On November 6, 2023, the company claimed, using in its defense the quality certificate of the Government of Armengol.

The current Executive demands the money, will take criminal action and emphasizes that the file would not expire until April 24.