Former Health Minister says his role was to ensure stock availability and acknowledges that someone in the SCS «made a mistake» with the RR7 contract.
Former Health Minister of the Government of the Canary Islands, Julio Pérez, stated on Monday that it is «impossible» for a minister to know all the contracts of the department, much less the amounts and the benefiting companies.
During an appearance before the investigative committee of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, he attributed the responsibility for purchases to the Director of Economic Services of the SCS, Ana María Pérez — who is under investigation for the ‘masks case’ — especially since an order was approved on March 28, 2020, centralizing the purchase of sanitary material in her area.
He mentioned that in the health management committee, there was no discussion of contracts except for the plane chartered from the Canary Islands to buy material in China. He emphasized that his role as Health Minister — for about three months — was to ensure that there was «sufficient stock» for health services to face the pandemic.
«There were terrible times, at one point, there were only swabs left for one day,» he recalled, highlighting that at the peak of the pandemic, the consumption of masks was almost half a million per week.
Regarding the RR7 contract — four million euros were paid for one million masks that were not delivered — he expressed his «enormous dismay» upon finding out through the press. He also clarified that he never had any contact with the company and was unaware that two installments of two million euros each were paid in advance.
Pérez argues that the necessary «investigations» were not carried out regarding the solvency of the company, which was not involved in medical supplies. «Someone at the SCS believed in them and made a mistake,» he pointed out.
In the same vein, he noted that emergency contracting allowed for «doing whatever is necessary,» although many times this modality is more of a burden because it gives you a lot of freedom, jokingly referring to it as the «nuclear button» by officials.
ALL AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES TURNED TO UNUSUAL SUPPLIERS
He specified that out of the more than 1,300 contracts supervised by the Court of Auditors, only a few are under investigation by the judiciary. He mentioned that «all» autonomous communities resorted to non-traditional suppliers, including the Ministry of Health, which signed contracts worth around 500 million euros with a food company.
In contrast to the former Minister of Social Rights, Noemí Santana, he denied any «malpractice» but admitted to some errors «and quite a few successes,» as the Canary Islands had the lowest mortality rate.
He defended the work of the former Health Minister of the Government of the Canary Islands, Teresa Cruz, at that time, although he refused to reveal the reasons for her dismissal. He also disagreed with her on holding the minister responsible for the actions of subordinates. «It depends,» he stated.
The former Health Minister stated that he was unaware if Conrado Domínguez was negotiating contracts from the Health Council while serving as the technical general secretary of Public Works — «if that were the case, it was poorly done» — and mentioned that he never had any contact with Koldo García or Víctor de Aldama. «I have never seen them in my life,» he explained.
In response to opposition criticism, he also stated that he did not open the door in the Canary Islands «to any corrupt scheme.»
