The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, assures that solely one of many public works contracts that based on the accused businessman Víctor de Aldama had been “pre-awarded” by Puente’s predecessor, José Luis Ábalos, in alternate for commissions was signed within the time when Ábalos was minister and that after an preliminary evaluation of his ministry, no irregularities had been present in his file. For Puente, after the accusation of Aldama, the alleged ringleader of the unlawful commissions plot investigated by the Koldo case, There is an try and mock justice.
1.- I open a thread. These are the paperwork which have emerged by the media, of what Víctor de Aldama has introduced in Court as accreditation of contracts that had been arbitrarily awarded within the basic course of highways to corporations that then paid… pic.twitter.com/QaN0sJANHB
— Oscar Puente (@oscar_puente_) December 6, 2024
As Puente identified in Congress throughout the celebration of Constitution Day after which detailed in additional element during which he held between 2018 and 2020 as Minister of Development after which, till 2021, as Minister of Transport.
The minister has detailed that within the paperwork offered by Aldama together with his intention to accredit contracts as compensation for bribes, seven public works are referred to. “We are going to analyze one by one to see what signs of veracity this information has,” the minister invitations you to learn.
The first of the works that seem in Aldama’s papers, Puente factors out, is the entry to the Alicante Airport and was tendered in 2017 and awarded in May 2018, due to this fact earlier than not solely Ábalos was in workplace, but additionally earlier than first Government of Pedro Sánchez, when Minister Íñigo de la Serna, of the PP, held the portfolio. The identical occurs with the second work, the enlargement of capability and a department of the A-67 in Cantabria.
The third work referred to, to construct a 3rd lane on the A-66 in Asturias, is the one one which Puente factors out that was tendered and contracted on the time of Ábalos (tendered in May 2019 and contracted in October of that yr). Puente factors out on this regard that it was awarded to the very best valued within the technical section, though “very tight with the second bidder after the opening of the economic offer.”
The fourth work, for a 3rd lane of the A-7 in Alicante, was put out to tender in September 2023, throughout the time of the socialist minister Raquel Sánchez, and the contract was formalized final June, with Puente already directing the ministry. The tender for the fifth aforementioned work, the enlargement of the A-67 between Polanco and Santander, additionally falls below the mandate of Raquel Sánchez, tendered in May 2023 and with the contract formalized in March of this yr.
The sixth and seventh public works that seem in Aldama’s papers correspond to 2 actions that, Puente emphasizes, “have not even been tendered yet.” The first is for the A-21 in Jaca (Huesca) and the second for a 3rd lane of the A-7 within the connecting part of Monteagudo and Fortuna (Murcia).
Puente has insisted that solely one of many seven referred to corresponds to the interval of José Luis Ábalos, and has additionally added that in it “nothing irregular has been observed in the hiring file.” “This analysis covers exclusively what has emerged through the media. We have to continue analyzing and delving deeper based on the judicial documentation. But it is already striking that what the investigator has chosen to highlight in his writing is discredited,” he acknowledged in X Puente.
The minister has concluded his thread on the social community by assuring that the info he has printed and others that his division continues to gather and analyze “will be incorporated into a detailed report” that he’ll present “to the court that is investigating the case.” “We want to be proactive and not wait to be required,” he concluded.
The Government is engaged on a report back to make clear the difficulty that shall be printed within the coming days. Puente assured this Friday morning in La Sexta relating to the papers introduced by Aldama to the Supreme Court: “What we are seeing, at least from the initial study, is that what he said does not make any sense, neither head nor tail.” .
Puente already introduced this Thursday that his group will “review” all public works contracts that based on Aldama had been “pre-awarded” by Puente’s predecessor within the ministry in alternate for commissions. The minister, who yesterday was greater than skeptical in regards to the veracity of the accusations that Aldama has addressed in a letter to the Supreme Court, has superior this Friday that the evaluation of those agreements carried out by his ministry “is going to be bad news.” for Mr. Aldama” who, he mentioned, “what he is doing is teasing the judge.” The assumption achiever of the plot introduced in his transient to the Justice of the Peace some annexes to the General State Budgets with public works contracts, a number of of them supposedly highlighted as a result of they had been granted as consideration for the cost of commissions.
The minister downplayed Aldama’s accusations already this Thursday. “What I have been able to see (…) is an Official State Gazette, an underlined investment annex, as evidence it really has little value,” the minister insisted relating to the documentation offered by the protection of the accused businessman. Puente additionally recalled that the awarding of a contract will not be a unilateral choice, however reasonably it’s a course of that “involves many people.” “I am surprised that it is said that the minister has the capacity to decide who is awarded a work; That is to say, they are contracting tables where the State Attorney’s Office is present, intervention, there are a lot of technicians”, and that “neither the minister nor any politician are” present, so “it is very difficult” for the events occurred as Aldama relates them. “But let’s check,” he insisted.
José Luis Ábalos, former number three of the PSOE, former Minister of Transport in the Government of Pedro Sánchez and current deputy of the Mixed Group, is summoned to give a statement before the instructor of the case in the Supreme Court, Judge Leopoldo Puente, on December 12 and “voluntarily”. However, Ábalos has requested, in light of Aldama’s letter, that his appearance be postponed for a few days because he has had problems accessing the case and needs to be able to study it carefully. The appearances as defendants of Ábalos himself (December 16) and of Ábalos’s former assistant in the ministry Koldo García (December 17), who gives the informal name to the case, are also already scheduled.
One of the last movements of Judge Leopoldo Puente has been to reject the dumping of the contents of Aldama’s cell phone, as his defense had requested, although he has not closed the door to carrying out this procedure later.
https://elpais.com/espana/2024-12-06/oscar-puente-asegura-que-solo-uno-de-los-contratos-senalados-por-aldama-se-firmo-con-abalos-como-ministro.html