This Thursday, the last of the three former Acciona executives indicted for their involvement in the alleged public works rigging project led by Santos Cerdán, José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García appeared before the Supreme Court. During his appearance before judge Leopoldo Puente, the former construction director of Acciona’s southern and African zone Manuel José García Alconchel dissociated himself from the events. According to him, it was his superior, Justo Vicente Pelegrini, who proposed collaborating with the Servinabar company, 45% owned by Santos Cerdán.
Pelegrini, Alconchel and a third manager named Tomás Olarte are under investigation for a series of contracts allegedly irregularly awarded to Acciona as part of a temporary joint venture (UTE) with Servinabar.
Alconchel appears linked to two of the suspicious rewards: that of the Centenario Bridge in Seville and that of the port of Kentira, in Morocco. His name appears in a report that the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard gave to instructor Leopoldo Puente in November.
The Centennial Bridge in Seville
According to the Civil Guard in said report, the plot favored the awarding of a contract to Acciona and Servinabar to correct “a series of pathologies” on the Centenary Bridge. As revealed by the UCO, Alconchel signed a “memorandum of understanding” on November 27, 2018 with the owner of Servinabar, Antxon Alonso, also investigated in the case currently before the Supreme Court.
The document included the “interest” of both companies in “work together and successfully develop the business opportunity related to the Centennial Bridge expansion.
The memorandum stated that if the UTE was awarded, Acciona would give Servinabar “2% of net collections” in exchange for “health and safety prevention” work. This Monday, the former director of the southern zone of Acciona declared that he signed this memorandum after Justo Vicente Pelegrini suggested it to him. The Armed Institute has repeatedly collected evidence of Pelegrini’s contacts with Santos Cerdán and Antxon Alonso, at stages that coincide with the public manipulation under investigation.
The UCO report also shows the interest that Santos Cerdán had in ensuring that the award of the works to Seville was completed. The document includes several messages from Cerdán to Koldo García in which the former organizing secretary insisted on the need to “close Seville”. Likewise, it includes other messages in which García told his boss, Ábalos, that Cerdán was “obsessed with the bridge.”
In another intercepted conversation, Koldo García tells Santos that former highways general director Javier Herrero had pressured Secretary of State Pedro Saura to advance the tender for the bridge contract. “He was seen from afar,” said the former advisor to the minister. The Ministry of Transport finally awarded the works to Acciona in May 2021 for an amount of more than 71 million euros. In June 2023, the contract was amended to increase the amount to almost 85 million euros.
According to the UCO, only one worker from Servinabar participated in the work: Antonio Muñoz Cano, brother of Santos Cerdán’s wife.
The port of Kentira in Morocco
Alconchel’s name appears again in the report when the UCO addresses the allegedly irregular allocation of a construction site in the port of Kentira (Morocco). In the process of being awarded this work by the Moroccan Government, Ábalos, Cerdán and García traveled to Morocco on January 23, 2019. Two days before this trip, Alconchel and Alonso signed another memorandum of understanding regarding the business opportunity.
Once again, The percentage that Servinabar would take was set at “2%” concerning the net charges received by Acciona. The Ministry of Transport said in a press release that Ábalos had visited Morocco to “encourage the participation of companies in ongoing projects in the neighboring country.”
The Civil Guard suspects that Cerdán and Ábalos pressured the Moroccan government to favor this reward, using their positions within the ministry and the PSOE. The UCO finds it “remarkable” that “Santos Cerdán, without being part of the government and only occupying the position of secretary of territorial coordination of the PSOE, has shown such interest, going so far as to order that Koldo García be included in the delegation of the Ministry of Transport”.
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