The National Court has begun this Monday to judge a separate piece of the Madeja case, related to the payment of bribes to officials by the company Fitonovo in exchange for public contracts. At the beginning of the oral hearing, the Court has rejected the preliminary issues raised by the defenses of the 9 defendants in this first piece that is being judged in the case, on alleged bribes from this company to public officials in exchange for awards in the Canary Islands.
The first defendant to testify has been the attorney of Fitonovo in the Canary Islands, Adolfo José De la Torre García, who has agreed to answer the prosecutor's questions to explain his relationship with the former councilor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote Sergio Machín, the engineer of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria Ulises Pérez, and the sales representatives of two companies related to Fitonovo, Rubens Coba and Gustavo Adolfo Gómez, who are sitting next to him in the dock.
Regarding Sergio Machín, De la Torre has stated that Fitonovo had a contract with the Cabildo of Lanzarote for cleaning the conservation of roads and cleaning the edges of grass and papers and that he was the councilor of the area. In addition, he has acknowledged having made payments to this former councilor from Lanzarote - as was proven during the investigation of this case - although he has denied that they were a bribe for that award. In this regard, he has assured that it was a "completely objective" award contract for 1 or 2 years, which was automatically renewed, and that it was granted to them because they were "the best offer for price and business qualification."
On one occasion, he explained, Machín asked him for money for his party, the PIL, and De la Torre replied that this request exceeded his powers and that he had to consult with the management of his company.
He did so, according to his account, and he conveyed the request to Ángel Macedo, a trusted person of the owner of Fitonovo, Rafael González Palomo, and they agreed to make the payments by depositing checks into their accounts that he then cashed and delivered in cash to the former councilor.
Machín received 24,000 euros, and, according to De la Torre, he paid them in two installments, in one he gave him 6,000 euros and in others 18,000, as reflected in the prosecutor's brief, who wanted to know why Fitonovo made those payments.
"You'll have to ask the company," the defendant has replied, who has rejected that it was in exchange for that award. "The contract was clear and it made no sense to pay anything to anyone," he has argued.
Regarding the accusation of having bribed the engineer of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria José Ulises Pérez, with whom he has said that he maintained a friendship, he has pointed out that the money that he received was part of the remainder of a work that was partially executed and not invoiced.
He has explained that of that work on a road in Gran Canaria - the repair of a wall on the GC-851 - "little was done" because when they went to the work there was already "a good part resolved," so if the award was 15,000 euros, about 5,000 were executed and 10,000 remained. Half went to Ulises and the other to Fitonovo.
Regarding the payment of a trip to the engineer for 15,000 euros, he has stated that he negotiated it with Gustavo and Rubens Coba and Gustavo Adolfo Gómez (delegates of API Movilidad and Elsamex SA, respectively) so that each one would ask their company for the money and he has specified to the prosecutor that what the three had in common with Ulises is that they were delegates of road conservation companies "each at their level."
With that money, they paid for a "tribute" trip for his wedding to Malaga during a weekend.
The Prosecutor's Office assures that the three companies were compensated for the payment of that amount "through false or inflated work certifications."
The trial will continue this Tuesday with the testimony of the rest of the defendants, among whom is also the former head of the Conservation and Exploitation of Roads Section of the Junta de Extremadura José María Pizarro Gómez, who faces the highest sentence request: 5 years in prison for bribery and 8 years of disqualification for prevarication.
The other three defendants are the former general secretary of the Andalusian Water Agency Carlos Francisco Irigoyen, the official of the Ministry of Development and Housing of the Junta de Andalucía José Francisco Cazorla and the director of Fitonovo José María López Torrego, who face a request for 4 years in prison.
