Ayuso admits that his brother charged €55,850 for bringing masks from China, but says it was not a commission

The political war between Pablo Casado and Isabel Ayuso is burning stages. If on Thursday Ayuso accused Casado of espionage, this Friday it was the leader of the PP who has projected suspicions of influence peddling on the president of Madrid. Thus, the Madrid president has been forced to give explanations regarding the possible collection of commissions by her brother in the award of a mask supply contract on a day when regional deputies from the PSOE, Más Madrid and Podemos have presented paths complaints against Ayuso before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for a possible crime of influence peddling.

Isabel Diaz Ayusohas published a statement in which he admits that his brother, Tomás Díaz Ayuso, received 55,850 euros plus VAT of the company Priviet Sportive, owned by Daniel Alcazar, childhood friend of the president’s family.

However, according to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the collection of this amount of money by her brother was not “an intermediation commission & rdquor; for her friend’s company to obtain a 1.5 million contract for the supply of 250,000 masks in April 2020 destined for pavilion 10 of Ifema. According to Ayuso, the payment was “for the efforts to buy masks in China & rdquor ;, at a time, at the beginning of the pandemic, when there were difficulties throughout the world for its supply.

The president explains that her brother sent Priviet Sportive 4 invoices in 2020, but in his statement Ayuso only reports one of them, dated June 30, for an amount of 55,850 euros plus VAT. “I do not have to account for the rest of the invoices because they are not related to the Community of Madrid and my brother has the right to his privacy,” she adds.

“The invoice to Priviet Sportive is not a commission for obtaining the contract from the Administration, but the collection of the steps taken to obtain the material in China and its transfer to Madrid, which is different & rdquor ;. This is how the president expresses herself in a two-page statement issued a few hours after the PP president himself, Paul Married, put the amount received by Tomás Díaz Ayuso at a much higher amount (286,000 euros), and put the president on the verge of influence peddling. “I would not allow a brother of mine to collect 300,000 euros for a contract awarded in my Council of Ministers & rdquor ;, Casado stated on Cadena Cope.

“As the honorability of the Government of the Community of Madrid and mine personally is questioned in June by the National Directorate of my partyI am obliged to report the following”, says Isabel Díaz Ayuso in her statement before explaining her brother’s “commercial relationship” with Priviet Sportive. “I hope that with this explanation no one doubts my honorability and my exemplary character”, “I insist that I never influenced the purchase of masks from this company, and that I learned about that contract when Pablo Casado informed me, not before,” he concludes at the end.

After the darts that Casado had launched earlier in the day in his radio interview, the Government of Madrid deployed a double action. First of all, Through the statement issued by Ayuso, it was wanted to place the collection of amounts by his brother within the private relations between a company and its suppliers (in addition to reducing the amount in dispute from 286,000 to 55,850 euros).

Secondly, Through a press conference, the Ministers of Health and Finance, Enrique Ruiz-Escudero and Javier Fenández-Lasquetty, broke down the administrative procedure that led to the award of a mask contract to Priviet Sportive on April 1, 2020 to demonstrate that the mechanism complied with the urgency procedure of the Contract Law (article 120). According to this procedure -explained the directors- the award was resolved by the Deputy Minister of Health Assistance (belonging to the Ministry of Health) and not the Governing Council of the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who was only informed of the award of the contract. “Our management has always been honest,” they defended.

The Minister of the Presidency, Enrique López, whose appearance had also been announced, dropped out of this press conference at the last moment. López -de facto, number two of the Madrid Government- has always been in the middle of the regional executive and the national leadership of the PP. His absence from the press conference, avoiding showing his public support for the president, was interpreted in some circles as a show of support for Genoa. Ruiz Escudero and Fernández-Lasquetty acknowledged that the information provided this Friday by the Madrid president had not been previously transferred to Casado, despite the fact that he had requested clarifications about the role of his brother in the mask contract.

The Governing Council was informed

According to the documentation released by the Community of Madrid after the press conference of the two directors, the head of Health reported on May 20, 2020 to the Governing Council, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of the five emergency contracts formalized by her department for the acquisition of medical supplies in the first two months of the pandemic, for a total of 4,289,950 euros. Among those five contracts was the one awarded to Priviet Sportive, for 1,512,500 euros.

Councilors Ruiz Escudero and Fernández-Lasquetty defended the “legality” of all emergency contracts of the regional Executive during the pandemic. “Each file has followed the same procedure and has been published transparently in the Recruitment Portal (…) Always in accordance with the law and following legal procedures and that has been the case with every step we have taken. Our management has always been honorable,” said Escudero.

Related news

The documentation provided to the media after the directors’ press conference documents the tadministrative branches followed for the award of the controversial mask contract to Priviet Sportive. Also included is the preliminary draft of the report made by the Chamber of Accounts of the Community of Madrid for the control of contracts processed by the regional government through the emergency procedure. The report of the Chamber of Accounts does not include any relevant observation on the sample of contracts analysed, which includes that of Priviet Sportive.