“We are cooperating with the Ministry of Justice, we are the first to be interested in finding out”

Madrid City Council has issued a statement after elDiario.es exclusively revealed that the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office is investigating the alleged collection of millions of dollars from contracts for various medical supplies by businessmen in the first weeks of the pandemic. Directed by José Luis Martინnez-Almeida, Consistoria explains that he is “first interested in knowing whether there has been any breach of these contracts” and that, in addition, he “ensures maximum co-operation with the Court of Justice and will continue to do so.” So, until all the facts are clarified. ”

As the newspaper explained, the Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office has a magnifying glass on two of the three contracts awarded to a Malaysian-based company in the last week of March 2020 to deliver medical supplies to Madrid: masks, antibody tests and gloves. . Investigators are investigating whether the two businessmen who mediated the operation received, including six million euros for commission contracts that did not reach between 11 million euros between the two.

Throughout this investigation, the City Council submitted various documents at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, and a high-ranking official who had been hired appeared as a witness. The contracts at that time were signed through a municipal funeral company and, as the City Council explains, “all of them were at the price of supply and demand at that time.” The Court of Auditors reflected in the report that the great municipalities of Spain paid very different prices, and in some cases more than 10 euros in differences per unit of antibody test, as was the case in Madrid.

It is in this statement that the City Council adds that “all coffins of emergency contracts have been sent to the Court of Auditors” and recalls that the examined contracts “were approved by the Board of Directors of the Municipal Burial House unanimously from all groups. Politicians ”

The Capital City Council recalls that they had a conflict with these intermediaries and a Malaysian-based supplier when one of the contracts for the sale of the gloves was invalid: “The third party involved in the gloves was part of it. “What was returned was paid back because there was no agreed model at the time of purchase,” he explained. “We must remember that in March 2020, the necessary staff of the City Council, the police, the healthcare or the funeral company, by the way, had to be provided with personal protective equipment during the most difficult moment of the pandemic. He explains.