Judge Javier Santamaría, who instructs (PP), has requested information about the files sent to the Government Council. The magistrate wants to know what files the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) sent between 2021 and 2023 to the Government Council chaired by Juan Manuel Moreno. “As well as any documentation in its files related to said files: legal reports, consultations with the Intervention, communications with suppliers and draft contracts that have been the subject of processing for agreements of the Government Council,” details the magistrate in his recent official letter. addressed to the legal advice of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs.
That is, the magistrate wants to scrutinize and understand under what reasons certain files were approved with the million-dollar emergency contracts that were submitted to the Government Council until last year. The leadership of the regional Executive agreed in 2020 to replace the prior control of the expenditure of the files with permanent financial control, which did not scrutinize the documents before their payment.
In parallel, the current one and her two predecessors issued resolutions “unfairly contrary to the law,” given that these decisions led to million-dollar emergency contracts that were drawn up “without supposedly legal or budgetary authorization,” reads a document incorporated into the cause. That is, the public ministry wants to investigate the contracts to clarify whether or not they had legal coverage.
The defense of the former director of the SAS Diego Vargas appealed to the Court of Instruction 13 against the delivery of information to the court by the Accounts Chamber and then Anti-Corruption has responded by arguing why it is necessary. The Prosecutor’s Office wants to clarify the five resolutions that raised the emergency contracting to 242 million, between January 20, 2021 and May 17, 2023. “The documentary [requerida por la Fiscalía] “Its purpose is to investigate specific facts that appear to be criminal (…) through the aforementioned resolutions and individual contracts signed by the managing directors of the SAS, they have been unfairly contrary to the law, and not a general review of the contracting carried out by the Board” , the Anti-Corruption delegate prosecutors emphasize in their letter signed this Tuesday.
In parallel, through his offices, the judge seeks details of the approval by the Board’s leadership to replace the prior control of certain expenses and services with permanent financial control. Following the massive request for information to study all emergency contracts by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the judge has agreed and signed seven letters addressed to the SAS, its legal advice, the General Intervention of the Board, the Intervention delegated to the SAS , the Secretariat of the State Public Procurement Advisory Board and the Andalusian Chamber of Accounts.
Meanwhile, the case seems to continue growing despite the fact that the Board called it a “political complaint”, and the popular accusation exercised by the Andalusian PSOE – which presented the initial complaint that triggered the investigation – has demanded from the judge a battery of new measures. Among them, it asks you to force the SAS to deliver more documentation, including all the legal reports of the SAS and the complete records of contracting medical services with private companies from 2015 to the present, both for emergencies and for any other modality, in order to compare the prices of services before and after the pandemic.
The thesis underlying this petition is to find out if, under the excuse of the health emergency due to Covid-19, prices were inflated so that the Administration would pay more for the services that were already provided before. Among the documentation, the SAS must deliver all the files and invoices issued by the companies for each service of each emergency contract. That is, thousands of documents.
The PSOE maintains that the Administration may not have verified whether or not the hospitals performed the services contracted by the Administration, including the medical interventions and operations of each private clinic. “In the context of total lack of control caused by the absence of procedure, this would be the only means of investigating the possibility that private clinics may have been able to bill for services that were not actually provided,” the letter states.
In parallel, the socialists request the testimony of the SAS central auditor, Victoria López, as a witness, as the author of the final compliance control reports between 2021 and 2023. The socialists also demand from the judge that the General State Intervention (IGAE) Examine the extensive documentation through your specialized experts, so that they can determine whether there has been damage to public funds and, if so, its economic dimension.
