Carlos Segovia Madrid

Madrid

Updated Sunday, March 10, 2024-02:10

  • Plot of the masks Koldo threatens Cerdán with pulling the blanket: "If Santos doesn't behave well, I will finish him off"

  • Transport The general secretary of State Ports is dismissed after lying to investigators about contacts with the 'Koldo plot'

To obtain a public job, there are competitive examinations, but there are also other systems like this: hitchhiking

,

getting an armored contract thanks to a party personality and thereby avoiding dismissal even after a serious event and a "loss of confidence." .

This is the case of

Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares

, dismissed last Wednesday as Secretary General of

State Ports

, for having lied to the investigators of the so-called

Koldo case

, but not dismissed.

The dismissal was explained last Wednesday by the Minister of Transport himself, Óscar Puente, and that he signed a response to the scandal investigators that "did not correspond to the facts", as EL MUNDO published the day before.

Why is a director of a public group not suddenly fired for lying to the

National Fraud Investigation Office

(Onif) of the

Tax Agency

?

"Because he has a consolidated position. He will not be able to continue as a manager, but he will be able to continue in another position," explain sources from Puertos del Estado.

"Consolidated position" in a state company in a freely appointed position?

That's how it is.

Even the position of his general secretary was created for him after the return to power of his party, the PSOE, in 2018 to make him

number two

in State Ports.

In reality, he has been chief executive until the end of 2021, because the dedication of the presidents who have been succeeding since 2018,

Ornella Chacón, Salvador de la Encina

and

Vicente Toledo

, was ephemeral and limited.

Only in the last two years was he truly subordinated to the current president,

Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena

, with whom he has worked for 15 years, but whom he made sign that

Víctor de Aldama

, the commission agent friend of José Luis Ábalos' advisor, Koldo García, He had not had anything to do with the hiring of the plot company in 2020 when he himself discussed the case with him.

"They fired him for being an idiot, for denying that he knew Aldama, when of course he knew him," say sources close to the plot that is being investigated.

The position of Sánchez Manzanares, whom the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard points out as the

Alvarito

with whom Koldo García speaks in the wiretaps, has been strengthened since the PSOE removed him from the

Las Rozas

council , where he was located. in the opposition in 2009. From that municipality of residence of socialist ministers such as

José Blanco

, Sánchez Manzanares managed to be named director of institutional relations and technological innovation of Puertos del Estado that year.

The then president,

Fernando González Laxe

, granted him a contract that converted that position of trust and free designation into life insurance.

If one day another president came and wanted to remove him, he would have to assign him another position.

With that contract, as this newspaper published on March 5, he found the new president of Puertos del Estado with the PP Government,

José Llorca

.

He could not fire him with the limited compensation established at the time by the vice president of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, so he chose to replace him in the legal office.

In Puertos del Estado they do not detail whether his consolidated position still comes from that contract or there has been a reinforcement of the subsequent armor with his promotion in July 2018 to general secretary, but what they do confirm is that he will be the one who decides if he wants to continue in another lower-ranking position or look for other job possibilities.

Sánchez Manzanares does not seem to enjoy the latter, because even before his lie was uncovered, he confessed to Koldo García a few months ago that he was "with a thrill" that Puente would keep him in his position at the port company.

Veterans of State Ports assure that there were other cases such as Sánchez Manzanares during the González Laxe era, which meant practically turning the people he trusted into the state company into officials.

It is striking that Álvaro Sánchez was also promoted to general secretary in 2018, which entails the head of legal services, without being a State lawyer as is usual in relevant public companies.

His role in the award was the most relevant in State Ports, because, although he himself made it clear that it was the Ministry that chose

Management Solutions

to take the order for 20 million euros in masks, he had to execute The procedure.

His power was total, as can be seen from the witness statement of

Belén Caballero

, head of the contracting department, to the UCO.

She "states that they had no option regarding Management Solutions, since it was imposed on them. The only thing they could do was take the most appropriate measures to safeguard the port public interest in the operation that was going to be carried out."

Despite the power that Álvaro Sánchez had in State Ports, a sign that the position of general secretary was tailor-made is that Rodríguez Dapena has not replaced him and it is possible that the position will be amortized.