Two days of work were enough for the PP to prepare an 84-page document with its proposed conclusions of the investigation commission that addressed the Xunta’s contracts in the Galician Parliament. The conservative party wrote the document alone, in which it expresses the same ideas that its spokespersons – in almost all sessions the task was carried out by Roberto Rodríguez, but his colleague Alberto Pazos also spoke – defended before this body. An argument that is reflected in the text with criticism of the opposition parties or statements copied from the statements of those responsible for the Vigo represented a waste of 470 million euros.
In its summary of the information provided by the 36 people who appeared and the 118 documents sent to Parliament (occupying about 40 boxes), the PP considers validated its political positions regarding the issues examined, which were, in addition to the model of public-private collaboration for the Vigo hospital, emergency contracts during the pandemic and the accumulation of orders for Eulen, the company of which Micaela Núñez Feijóo, the sister of the current leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The specific section of conclusions begins with the statement that “the commission corroborates […] that there is not a single blemish of legality in the construction process of the Álvaro Cunqueiro Public Hospital, nor in the minor contracting processes of the Xunta de Galicia, nor in the emergency contracting carried out by the regional public administration, and particularly by the “Servizo Galego de Saúde, during the pandemic.”
With this text, the PP intends to close an investigative commission that it first tried to avoid and that, once created – under the protection of a point in the regulations that allows opening a body of this type with the votes of a third of the deputies, those who has the BNG – controlled to carry out a work plan that excluded Feijóo and his family environment, despite the fact that he was the president of the Xunta during most of the period analyzed. Both the Block and the PSdeG have denounced that the popular group, the majority in the Chamber, has turned the commission into “a paripé”, with appearances, such as several medical and staff chiefs of the Vigo hospital, who, due to their own functions, do not They could shed light on the Galician administration’s contracting procedures and focused more on defending the unquestioned need to build new health facilities in the city.
The opposition has criticized the attitude of the PP in the commission, with decisions based on reports from the Chamber’s lawyers that had not been made known to them; a large amount of documentation that arrived just an hour before the hearings began, without material time to review it first; a tight schedule with up to six people offering their version in the same day or debates about whether or not the model chosen for the Álvaro Cunqueiro can be called an extra cost – a concession in which the company financed the works, in exchange for a fee millionaire that continues to be paid, and exploits non-clinical services – would cost, according to the Consello de Contas, 470 million euros more than a traditional award of the works.
The popular ones transfer that issue to the proposed opinion, which the opposition once again denounces as having been made without the contributions of BNG and PSdeG. There were two meetings: the first, on Friday, December 13, was held as a protest by the opposition and the second, the following Monday, was attended by nationalist and socialist deputies in the morning. In the afternoon the popular ones presented their proposed opinion. There is now a period of five business days to register allegations.
In their conclusions, the PP speakers – Roberto Rodríguez and, as substitute, Julio García Comesaña – insist that “the Consello de Contas never said that there was an extra cost.” The report, in fact, states that, once the works were commissioned with the public-private formula, the construction cost what was expected. What this document says, they insist, is that bidding for the work, on the one hand, and the services on the other “would give similar results at a lower cost, which in no case is an extra cost.” They add that, from the information obtained in the commission, it is concluded that “public-private collaboration was the only viable option in a context of extreme economic crisis and inability to resort to public debt.” The position replicates the same terms in which the Xunta expressed itself after learning of Contas’ analysis in the summer.
The proposed opinion also reviews the reports that the bipartite of PSdeG and BNG that led the Xunta between 2005 and 2009 had requested from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Garrigues on the possible models to build the new hospital in Vigo. It cites the observations of several of those appearing, but omits those of the Minister of Health in that coalition government, María José Rubio, who stated that the Sociedade Pública de Investimentos (SPI) had been given the mandate to make the contract. and that the Xunta Council approved an economic and financial plan that provided for a disbursement of 420 million public funds. The text written by the PP refers to the intervention of the Facenda department with the arrival of Feijóo to the Galician Government in 2009, Marta Fernández Currás, and concludes that there was “no documentation or technical or economic report.”
Criticism of the opposition in the conclusions
Another of the popular’s conclusions is that the commission “made evident the different yardstick of the BNG, and also of the PSdeG, with respect to the different contracting procedures and modalities: they defend it when they exercise government responsibilities and demonize it when they develop opposition work.” They refer to criticism of contracts awarded by hand to companies related to relatives of high-ranking officials. The opposition’s complaints have focused on cases of accumulation of orders with some signatures, such as Eulen or that of the brother of the general secretary of the Presidency.
The conservative formation even includes in its summary an observation about what they consider a “turning point” in the BNG’s position during the preparatory meetings of the commission: “This change of opinion, also discursive, took definitive form when the BNG was unable to answer the question of whether any family member or person in Ana Pontón’s immediate environment has had minor contracts with any public administration governed by the BNG.” The reference is the insinuations repeated in recent weeks by members of the PP and by the president of the Xunta himself, which they have not managed to specify or support with documents.
Recommendations: minor contracts in accordance with the law
The document ends with 10 recommendations. It begins by asking the regional administration not to replace the complete feasibility study with the economic-financial viability study (one of the issues that Contas raised regarding Álvaro Cunqueiro), that the suggestions of the Contas Council on hiring in Sergas be applied. , that healthcare purchases are made taking into account possible shortages of essential products, that centralized acquisitions of recurring products are committed and that electronic contracting is encouraged.
As for minor contracts, which are awarded by hand, they encourage “continuing to use them” in accordance with current regulations: “As long as the amount corresponds to what is legally provided for and is limited to those assumptions assessed by legislation.” They also ask that work continue on transparency and add a first-person suggestion: “We will continue to advance in the adoption of measures to improve minor contracting procedures and in the implementation of techniques that facilitate the proper exploitation of the data offered. on the Contracts Platform”.
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