Since July 2021, the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGC) has filed five criminal complaints related to the Sputnik V vaccine purchase contract, and the then Minister of Health, Amelia Flores, is held responsible in all of them.
Until yesterday, the Public Ministry (MP) had not shared information about the investigations, which range from failure to deliver documents to facilitate audits to the possibly irregular signing of the agreement for the purchase of the vaccines.
These five complaints are added to a sixth that was presented last Thursday by the Minister of Health, Óscar Cordón, also against Flores. This latest Government action was filed only after the contract term expired.
For now, the Government is not contemplating further actions to seek compensation for the country from the company Human Vaccine, which brokered the purchase of the Russian vaccines, and it is also not clear if there are more people behind the plot to acquire the Russian vaccines. Sputnik V dose.
“In the file it appears that the contract was signed by Amelia Flores, as Minister of Health,” the Attorney General of the Nation, José Saavedra, limited himself to responding about the scope of those responsible for the purchase.
The official also avoided spreading suspicions towards Miguel Martínez, a person close to the government of Alejandro Giammattei who was sanctioned by the United States Department of State for allegedly having requested “large bribes” in the purchase of Russian vaccines.
“There is no evidence that it is an act authorized or approved by the President of the Republic or in which Mr. Miguel Martínez participated,” said Saavedra.
Martínez, for his part, published on his Instagram account that he was “unfairly” sanctioned and asks that he be granted the right to defense.
“My sanction was political, clearly after an event that occurred in Congress (…) I do not have accounts either in the United States or outside of Guatemala. The accounts I had in the banks in Guatemala do not reflect that I have received bribes, far from it,” he wrote.
The head of the information and press department of the Public Ministry (MP), Juan Luis Pantaleón, reported that various procedures have been carried out and “they have documentation and a report was requested from the Ministry of Health on the relationship between the negotiations carried out and people or entities involved in the acquisition of these.”
Regarding the most recent complaint, “it will be referred to the complaint that the Public Ministry has in progress and that is currently in charge of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity.”
“There is more”
Regarding this complaint, according to the executive director of the GT Data Laboratory, Óscar Chávez, it is positive that the complaint has been filed, because “from the first day that the contract was discussed, the negotiation with the company to acquire the Sputnik V vaccine “There were many alarms about how the process was carried out, how decisions were made.”
This case of the purchase of Sputnik vaccines is emblematic, he assured, because it is “like the La Línea case of 2015. For us it is very valuable and symbolic. Now it is significant that this type of research is carried out because we are talking about hundreds of millions of quetzales that could have been used in hospitals during the health emergency generated by Covid-19.”
The official stated that the population required the attention of the State and that “there were many deaths from covid-19.”
“This complaint sends a positive message about a very negative situation. “I can’t tell you that we are happy about it, because in reality what we would have wanted was not to reach this extreme,” he said.
For Chávez, it is very likely that the investigation will expand as it progresses, because “obviously, these types of negotiations do not depend on one or two people, many more are involved in these types of processes.”
The Contract that was endorsed during the government of the then president, Alejandro Giammattei, to acquire the Sputnik V vaccines, was reported by officials of this government to the Public Ministry (MP), who must determine if there is any commission of crime regarding main points surrounding the acquisition of drugs.
Points to clarify
Information was hidden: The details of the contract that was signed in 2021 became known recently, because according to President Giammattei, it was signed through a confidentiality agreement. The current government spoke out through the Attorney General’s Office and stated that “confidentiality in acts of public management is not justified,” and social audits should be allowed.
Contract in English: The contract was made exclusively in English and there were no copies translated into Spanish. According to the complainants, article 11 of the Judicial Branch law is violated and the clauses should be in Spanish.
Compensation: In the event that the Human Vaccine company, which provided the vaccines, did not comply with the clauses of the contract of Q614 million that were paid, it only had to pay US$100 thousand as compensation, about Q800 thousand.
Complaints: Despite the accusations against former president Alejandro Giammattei, former chancellor Pedro Brolo and the accusations by the United States against the former director of the Government Center, Miguel Martínez, whom he accused of benefiting from the million-dollar vaccine contract, only the former minister of Health, Amelia Flores, faces two complaints for having signed the contract. The MP must determine if there are other former officials involved.
The Attorney General of the Nation, Julio Roberto Saavedra, maintains that for now the allegations against Martínez are beyond the functions of that agency because they do not have evidence, and they appeal to “whoever has it” to present it to the MP.
According to the complaint for signing the contract, the former Minister of Health failed to comply with the principle of legality because she did not review Guatemalan laws to endorse the million-dollar contract, and could face the crimes of abuse of authority, breach of duties and embezzlement.
No trace of celebration. Despite there being a signed contract, it is not known where it was signed or who was present. According to officials, there is no evidence that Russian executives were present.
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