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Three days after being appointed as spokesperson for the group of doctors that advises Governor Wanda Vázquez on the management of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Segundo Rodríguez Quilichini received a text message on his cell phone that, in principle, seemed innocuous, but that later has ended up having enormous meaning.
Juan Maldonado de Jesús, an activist from the New Progressive Party (PNP), former undersecretary of Transportation and Public Works and former director of the Maritime Transport Authority, who was seen in campaign activities of the governor Wanda Vázquez, wrote to him. Maldonado de Jesús is today the representative of Apex General Contractors, a small construction company whose owner, Robert Rodríguez López, having run out of income due to the paralysis imposed by the authorities to stop the coronavirus, was looking for what else he could earn a living .
In the message, which was sent on March 22 and a copy of which was supplied to El Nuevo Día by a source who prefers not to be identified, Maldonado de Jesús presented himself to Dr. Rodríguez Quilichini and offered him practically the equivalent of a timepiece of coronavirus times. He said he had three models of respirators available, a portable respirator, the coveted N-95 masks, sanitary gowns, many other medical products and, above all, the famous “rapid tests” that help determine if someone has or has suffered from coronavirus.
Rodríguez Quilichini told El Nuevo Día that he does not know Maldonado de Jesús. The message would probably have been quiet on the doctor’s phone along with hundreds of others, had it not been for Maldonado de Jesús showing up dropping one of those abracadabra-like phrases that in governments like Puerto Rico open doors that move mountains: “I am Tito Laureano’s friend, who gave me his cell phone ”.
Eduardo “Tito” Laureano is a militant veteran and organizer of the PNP who has related in one way or another to all the administrations of that party since the 1980s. Rodríguez Quilichini, who has donated $ 10,297 to candidates of that party, mainly Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz knows him. Laureano told El Nuevo Día that he has no business or other relationships with Maldonado de Jesús and that he simply gave him Rodríguez Quilichini’s phone number.
Laureano and her daughter’s consulting companies have accumulated $ 1.8 million in contracts during this four-year period. Of that figure, $ 220,050 is for contracts in the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) authorized by Rodríguez Quilichini, as its rector.
Without specifying that it was because of the magic words – “I am a friend of Tito Laureano” – the doctor admitted that he referred the message to the people in charge of government purchases. “I told him that a purchasing contact was going to pass him so that he would make the recommendation that he had to make,” said Rodríguez Quilichini.
The rector assures that this was his only participation in this matter. He emphatically denied promoting or having relationships with Apex General Contractors or 313 LLC, the other company that sold coronavirus tests to the government in dubious circumstances.
“I don’t know who owns Apex or 313. I don’t even know what companies those are. I am a surgeon. I got into this ‘task force’ to help the governor, help the Secretary of Health and help the people of Puerto Rico. I am not a buyer. I have no experience in laboratory or shopping. I don’t dedicate myself to that and I don’t have experience, “said Rodríguez Quilichini.
It has not been possible to verify whether this was the first or the only approach that Maldonado de Jesús made in favor of his client.
What is known is that four days after the message to Rodríguez Quilichini – on March 26 – Apex General Contractors, who had no experience in marketing medical products, was awarded a $ 38 million contract to sell him a million rapid tests. to the Bureau of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration (Nmead), on the recommendation of the Department of Health.
Five days later, on March 27, $ 19 million fell into the Apex General Contractors account at Oriental Bank, half the total amount of the business that the merchant demanded as a deposit.
Similarly, a few days later, on April 1, one day after the five-day deadline that Apex had been given to bring a million pieces of evidence from Australia to Puerto Rico expired, the contract was canceled and the money returned .
In the transatlantic government in which everything is slow and whose Byzantine bureaucratic processes often make think of the novel ‘The process’, by the Czech-Jewish writer Franz Kafka, in a matter of days he was released $ 19 million so that an inexperienced company In the field of medical products, he would buy rapid tests to detect the coronavirus, apparently at a premium, and from a company in Australia of which nothing was known here.
In the government where no one is responsible for anything, with a single day of delay in the delivery date, a transaction of such enormous magnitude was simply canceled. Right now, the controversial business is being investigated by the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, the FBI, the United States Department of Health and Human Resources, and by the Puerto Rico House of Representatives.
“When they bring this matter to my attention, from the central accounting area, they recognize that under the representations made by the Department of Health, placing delays in the contractual process could put Puerto Rico in a position of not being able to obtain these tests,” said the Secretary of the Treasury, Francisco Parés, who had to authorize the processing of the advance requested by Apex.
Payments in advance in the government are not prohibited, but they are very unusual, Secretary Parés acknowledged.
“From the Department of Health, they represent to the Department of the Treasury that there was no way for that supplier to enter into that agreement if there was no advance payment,” Parés added.
It has not been possible, until now, to specify what was the powerful hand that achieved so much from the Department of Health. Until today afternoon, when a press conference is held on this issue, the governor had not made public statements on this issue since Sunday. Fortaleza spokesman Osvaldo Soto has ignored questions all week as to who was aware of or authorized the controversial transaction from the executive mansion.
The business came at a difficult time. The interim secretary, Concepción Quiñones de Longo, had been appointed on March 13 after the abrupt departure of Rafael Rodríguez Mercado. Quiñones resigned, also abruptly, on the 26th, the same day the deal with Apex was signed.
In an interview with El Nuevo Día, Quiñones de Longo that the entire subject of contracting was handled by the then assistant undersecretary of health administration, Adil Rosa Rivera, and other subordinates, in direct coordination with Fortaleza.
“Mrs. Adil Rosa was in charge of all the tests and she coordinated that directly with Fortaleza. She explained that she was following instructions from Fortaleza, ”said Quiñones de Longo.
The doctor did sign the $ 3.6 million contracts for 313 LLC, but says she did not know either the directors of that company or those of Apex. He also maintained that he was unaware of the market price of the tests that the Department of Health paid at $ 36, $ 38, and $ 45, despite the fact that their actual prices rarely exceed $ 20.
“The contacts (with the contractors) were made by Mrs. Adil Rosa in communication with Fortaleza. With whom there, I don’t know, ”said Quiñones de Longo.
The FBI investigates these and other transactions in Health, the current secretary, Lorenzo González, has confirmed. When Quiñones de Longo was asked if she had been questioned by the FBI, she was silent for a few seconds, after which she replied: “I can’t talk about it.”
Apex was never able to purchase the evidence in Australia. Rodríguez said he could not “for reasons beyond my control.” There are versions that the account was frozen when the $ 19 million fell suddenly. Rodríguez López, who in the past few days had answered questions from El Nuevo Día, said today that he would not comment further.
El Nuevo Día asked Secretary Parés about the version that the account was frozen. He replied that he was not aware, but indicated that Oriental Bank informed Ottmar Chávez, director of the General Services Administration (ASG), that sometime before the order was canceled, Rodríguez tried, unsuccessfully, to make a transaction “with an entity in Australia. “
At that time, Parés said, he had already learned that the order was intended to be canceled and he quickly contacted the Health Department and Nmead to expedite the process for returning the money.
On Thursday, April 2, the director of Nmead, José Burgos, wrote to Rodríguez López canceling the contract and asking for the return of the deposit. The same thing was done on Friday the 3rd by the Secretary of Health, who had been confirmed in his post on Saturday, March 28 and encountered this revolt upon arrival.
On Monday, April 6, the $ 19 million was back in the Treasury Secretary’s account, Parés said.
And the controversy, and the inquiries and everything that comes after, was just beginning.
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