The Court of Auditors does not enter the Masks case

The Court of Auditors does not enter the Masks case

In the image, the former director of the SCS and investigated for the Masks case, Conrado Domínguez. / JOHN CARLOS ALONSO

In December, the Government asked the TC to suspend the proceedings because criminal proceedings were open

CANARIAS7 The Gran Canarian palms

The instructor of the Court of Accounts (TC) responsible for analyzing the case file
case Masks,
carmen rosadoconcludes that the facts
"They are not likely to be declared a presumed scope" on his part because his own
Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) and the Canary Islands Tax Agency they tried to recover, via coercion and execution, the four million euros delivered by the
company RR7 for
million masks which were not delivered to
Health.

As will be recalled, the Court of Auditors
opened proceedings last year and incorporated into them the
draft report of the Hearing of Accounts that pointed the
possibility of accounting irregularity in that contract. The plenary session of the Court
failed to approve the proposed reportbut the proceedings continued their course in Madrid.

Within the framework of the previous actions in the Court of Accounts, it is highlighted that the
"redress" of the alleged damage amounting to four million euros
"It is being executed by the Canary Islands Tax Agency".

In practice, the instructor understands that
there is still no talk of alleged accounting irregularity as this money recovery procedure is still alive, for which reason he opts not to enter the case.

Allegations of the Canarian legal services

The letter continues by mentioning that the
December 9, 2022 received in the Court of Accounts a
brief of allegations of the Vice-Ministry of Legal Services of the government
requesting the suspension of proceedings since a criminal proceeding was already open and was taken over by the
European Public Prosecutor's Office.

In this sense, the instructor emphasizes that, in any case, it is not her responsibility to rule on the "suspension of the proceedings under investigation (...) since such possibility is legally reserved to the Accounts counsellors, therefore, in In your case, such a question must be raised in the accounting jurisdictional procedure.

Likewise, as has been indicated, these actions only have the purpose of procuring a
further clarification of the factswithout implying determining the existence or inexistence of accounting liability, which will be determined in the
accounting jurisdictional phase».

European Public Prosecutor's Office

At the moment, the Mascarillas case is being
instructed by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, that it assumed the competence to understand that it affected community funds.

continue as
investigated seven people: the former director of the Canary Islands Health Service, Conrado Domínguez; the
then director of Economic Resources of the SCS, Ana María Pérez;
the owner of RR7, Rayco Rubén González; the intermediary Osvaldo Lastras, friend of Conrado Domínguez; and the wife, mother and a cousin of the owner of RR7.

on thurz that initially instructed pointed
four alleged crimes: administrative prevarication, aggravated fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.

In the letter included in the procedure opened in the Court of Auditors, it is stated that "the alleged procedural irregularities in terms of contracting that, where appropriate, would have occurred in the actions carried out by the Canary Islands Health Service
do not constitute in themselves a real and effective damage to public funds.

Damage

Therefore, they are not the subject of the accounting investigation either in the fulfillment of their functions or in the analysis of the applicable regulations on contracting, which concerns the scope of the contentious-administrative jurisdiction.

Immediately afterwards, it adds that for there to be an accounting irregularity «it cannot be based solely on irregular compliance with accounting standards or administrative procedures.

Said infringement (...) must cause damagesince we are facing an essentially compensatory jurisdiction and hence the importance of specifying the damages and losses that are caused during the administrative activity ».

In her account, the instructor adds that, according to the Mascarillas case file,
there was a breach of contract that has produced a
unjustified outflow of public fundswhich led to the termination of the contract.

However, having
accredited the initiation of an enforcement procedure by the Canary Islands Tax Agency, this delegated instruction considers that, although the unduly paid amount has not yet been paid,
it is not possible to assess the existence of a scope susceptible to accounting liability having
activated all legal mechanisms opportune to recover public funds unduly paid and, in this way, prevent effective damage to public funds.