José Castro, the judge instructed to investigate charges filed by the anti-corruption prosecutor Pedro Horrach in respect of the process to award the contract for the construction of Son Espases hospital, has called the former Balearic president, Jaume Matas, to appear before him in September.
Matas is one of eight people cited by the prosecution as suspect in the affair, charges levelled at him and others being forgery, fraud and abuse of public office.
Health minister
Castro has issued subpoenas as the start of his process of investigating the facts of the case presented to him, and the first person who has been called to appear is the former health minister Aina Castillo.
She is scheduled to declare on 1 September, as is the one-time director-general of IB-Salut (the Balearic health service), Sergio Beltrán.
Matas is due to appear on 16 September, and Juan Miguel Villar Mar, the president of the construction company OHL, has been called for the following day. The case centres on allegations that Matas and the others conspired in seeking to rig the award of the contract in favour of OHL and so against a rival bidder, a consortium headed by the company Dragados.
The contract was for the most expensive public works ever carried out in the Balearics, with an initial budget of 780 million euros.
Horrach maintains that the tender contest was manipulated and “perverted” by Matas.
“He held absolute control over it.”
In the end, Dragados was awarded the contract, but this came about, it is alleged on the day the award was to be announced, irregularities with the award were revealed.
Intervened
Matas then intervened, itself a legally questionable action, with the result that Dragados got the contract.
Castillo and Beltrán have both collaborated with the investigations, but there are further aspects that Horrach wants to examine, such as whether bribes and illegal commissions were paid.