Claudio Savoia
04/29/2021 1:23 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 04/29/2021 1:23 PM
The federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan summoned
the Minister of Health Carla Vizzotti
to
testify as a witness
, in the framework of the investigation into the
alleged embezzlement of public funds
through the contract that the government signed with the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca for the supply of vaccines.
Vizzotti was summoned for May 7, but can respond in writing.
The case for alleged irregularities in the contract for the purchase of 22.4 million vaccines from AstraZeneca - of which 60 percent of the agreed budget was paid at 89.6 million dollars - began with a complaint against Alberto Fernández, the former Minister Ginés González García, his successor Vizzotti and two other officials from the Ministry of Health, for alleged abuse of authority, misappropriation of public funds and negotiations incompatible with the public function.
The case fell into the hands of Judge Julián Ercolini, who referred the investigation to Prosecutor Marijuan.
Last Friday, the prosecutor ordered the presentation of information and documents on the questioned contract by the Ministry of Health and also by the Argentine laboratory
mAbxience
, of the pharmaceutical businessman Hugo Sigman.
Sigman's role is under scrutiny, as it functioned as a link between the government and AstraZeneca, which it would provide services under this contract.
Suspicions were multiplied by Sigman's historical link with Kirchnerism, and the presence of the official
Sonia Tarragona
: “the negotiations with the Pfizer laboratory -which were truncated- were delegated by the former minister González García in Sonia Tarragona,
an official who He had previously worked for Hugo Sigman
, himself linked to AstraZeneca.
That is,
a direct competitor
, which could imply a violation to the law of Ethics in the public function ", says the judicial complaint signed by Josefina de Elizalde, in representation of the" nonpartisan citizen space "Republican Joint Action.
But that would not be the way of the first hypotheses that justice handles. "
For now we are investigating whether the State could have been the victim of a negotiation with AstraZeneca
that did not have the desired result. This does not mean that later there may be other aspects that should be analyzed regarding the behavior of the officials,"
a source
warned
Clarín
linked to research.
In other words,
this week the case took a different course from the one that had been raised in the complaint
that started it. Although the Marijuan prosecutor's office does not rule out advancing on the possible responsibilities of the president and his officials in the controversial contract for the purchase of vaccines and Sigman's role in the business -
partner? supplier? Lobbyist?
- For now, the guns are only aimed at the international directors of the consortium that manufactures the doses investigated at the English University of Oxford.