On April 3, after the signing of the former Deputy Minister of Health of the Andalusian Government by the insurance company Asisa became public, the left-wing groups Por Andalucía and Adelante Andalucía registered complaints with the Office against Fraud and Corruption. The PP accused them of being “populists.”
But, 24 hours later, it was the General Inspection of the Board itself – dependent on the Ministry of Justice – who recommended that the Andalusian Executive follow the same path – in a report dated April 4 that the Board decided not to make public –, after after having analyzed the links between Miguel Ángel Guzmán and the private company that offered him a contract as chief medical officer of Andalusia three months after his resignation from the Ministry of Health.
This aspect of the internal investigation ordered by the Government of Juan Manuel Moreno was unknown until now, because it is part of the extraordinary report of the Inspection Service of the Board, to which this newspaper has had access, and which concludes that the signing of the former number two of Health violated the Andalusian Law on Incompatibilities of Senior Officials.
The Andalusian Government offered the conclusions of that report in a statement to the media, but refused to make the document public, alleging that “it refers to an identified person” and affected the “fundamental right to the protection of personal data” of the former deputy minister. . Under the Transparency Law, the Board was forced to deliver the report to this newspaper: “The undeniable public interest that exists in access to this information is evident, and that it displaces the rights of the affected person regarding the protection of your personal data.”
A “preliminary” report
On April 4, following the information published about Guzmán’s hiring by Asisa, the head of the General Inspection of Services of the Board issued a report of a “preliminary nature”, because it was based “exclusively on the data that in “That moment was available.” The document concludes that the jump of the former Deputy Minister of Health to the private company – announced three months after his dismissal – violated the Incompatibilities Law and, among its proposals, it urges the Board to report the case to the Anti-Fraud Office if the signing comes to consummation.
The Andalusian Executive never did so, because that report had an immediate deterrent effect: Guzmán and Asisa parked their contractual relationship until the month of July, when the Board authorized the signing because the two-year mandatory period established by law had passed. However, the Inspection makes it clear that its conclusions are “preliminary” and urges the Board to “prepare a definitive report that concludes the ongoing action”, already with a complete analysis of the links between the former vice-counselor and Asisa.
But the Andalusian Executive abandoned that recommendation of the report and considered the matter settled when the former high official parked his contract. “The object of the extraordinary inspection [el contrato de Guzmán] was not formalized, the factual assumption that led to the action turned out to be non-existent, which led to the action being archived on May 7, 2024,” they warn from the General Secretariat of Public Administration of the Board.
Political earthquake
Guzmán’s signing by the insurance company caused a political earthquake, because during his tenure as manager of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) he had awarded 44 million euros in hand-picked contracts to this company’s hospitals, an extreme revealed by this newspaper. The Andalusian Executive “found out from the press,” he argued then, and a few hours after the news broke, he ordered the opening of an internal investigation to determine whether his former deputy minister had violated the legislation on incompatibilities.
The Board’s Inspection Service made a “preliminary report”, with the data collected from the Ministry of Health, and after reviewing 14 agreements that Guzmán had signed for the benefit of Asisa while he was in charge of the SAS, between October 2019 and July 2022. The conclusion is that “the mandatory two years had not elapsed since his resignation as manager and his supposed incorporation into the Asisa Group, among whose entities is the Lavinia Hospital Group”, beneficiary of the 44 million euros in contract contracts. .
The department did not prepare a definitive report, because based on these first conclusions – four pages long – Guzmán resigned from taking up his position at Asisa, at least until next month, when two years will have passed since left the leadership of the SAS. The Board’s inspectors determined that there was no incompatibility between the decisions he subsequently adopted – already as Deputy Minister of Health – and the position of medical director of Andalusia that Asisa offered him.
However, in that period Guzmán also adopted decisions that benefited this company, and about which the Board’s Inspection Service requested information, namely: “the accreditation as university hospitals of the HLA Inmaculada centers, in Granada, and HLA “El Ángel, in Málaga, during the period between July 2022 and December 2023.”
These latest actions, which turned Asisa into the first and only private business group with links and synergies with public universities in Andalusia, were authorized by Guzmán as vice-counselor, a month before resigning and four before signing for the group. In this case, the two years established by law have not elapsed, but there are no reasons for incompatibility in the report.
What the aforementioned extraordinary Inspection report does reveal are proposals for action addressed to the Andalusian Government, among them, putting the documentation referring to Guzmán in the hands of the Anti-Fraud Office “for its knowledge and timely effects in the event that the relationship is formalized.” contractual and could, therefore, constitute serious misconduct,” the document says, “regardless of whether the processing of the inspection action continues for a better understanding of the concurrent circumstances.”
The report also encourages “continuing with the inspection action” on Guzmán’s case, and urges the Board to tighten the Law of Incompatibilities of Senior Officials, of 2005, because “there is no procedure by which the Administration is aware of the hiring of former senior officials and to avoid similar unexpected situations,” he concludes.
A few weeks later, the Minister of Justice presented an express reform of the law, precisely to make it mandatory to consult the Board of senior officials who decided to join the private sector before the stipulated two years. The modification was approved by decree law, which will be validated this Wednesday by the Andalusian Parliament, regardless of whether Moreno’s Executive develops a more exhaustive review of the incompatibilities rule, which even expands the right to severance pay (the compensation they now receive former managers after leaving the public administration: one month for each year worked).