Marina Geli, former Minister of Health between 2003 and 2010, testified this Monday at the Palau de Justícia in Tarragona and denied having intervened in the hiring of Carles Manté by Innova in March 2007, within the case concerning the management of the new Sant Joan de Reus Hospital.
Her appearance caused one of the main tensions of the trial. Geli defended that the Department of Health was "totally guaranteeing" and that there were controls over public funds for the works, but at the same time assured that she was unaware of the assignments that the municipal holding company made to Manté and also of the specific reasons for his departure from the Servei Català de la Salut at the end of 2006.
Geli denied efforts to hire Manté at Innova
The former minister placed the department's relationship with the Reus project in the area of investment supervision and not in the hiring of managers or advisors. In her statement, she affirmed that Health dealt with hospital providers and that management was structured through public companies in a model shared with the city councils.
"We have many controls; it is a totally guaranteeing Department" - Marina Geli, former Minister of Health
Geli maintained that CatSalut technicians supervised the public funds allocated to the construction of the new Sant Joan de Reus Hospital. She also denied having made efforts for Manté to be hired by the Reus City Council and emphasized that he had twenty years of experience in the healthcare sector.
Regarding Manté's departure as director of the Servei Català de la Salut on December 27, 2006, the former minister said she did not recall a specific reason. She framed that change as an internal reorganization following the change of president in the Generalitat de Catalunya.
During her testimony, Geli also recalled that during her tenure at the helm of Health, the decentralization of the system was promoted with the creation of the health regions of Camp de Tarragona and Terres de l'Ebre. She cited the inauguration of the Móra d'Ebre Regional Hospital as an example of that process.
Sabater admitted meetings with Manté for Reus and Tortosa projects
Josep Maria Sabater, director of CatSalut between 2007 and 2011, explained that he did hold meetings with Manté because he had been his predecessor and because several projects linked to the Sagessa group were still open. Among them, he mentioned the decentralization of services from the Sant Joan de Reus Hospital to Tortosa.
Sabater affirmed that he knew Manté took on assignments for Innova, although he specified that they never spoke about the creation of his company CCM Estratègies i Salut, S.L. His testimony connected Manté's activity with matters that were still ongoing in the territory, but without placing those conversations in the design of the commercial company.
"I know it works, but he didn't discuss it with me; architecturally the Cinta was impossible for setting up the bunkers because the hospital was very bad" - Josep Maria Sabater, former director of CatSalut
With that explanation, he referred to the installation of linear accelerators at the Verge de la Cinta Hospital in Tortosa. Sabater's statement focused on healthcare projects open in Terres de l'Ebre and Camp de Tarragona during those years.
The session also included the appearance of several architects, who testified about the functions of Jorge Batesteza, another of the eight investigated in the case, during the construction of the new hospital in Reus.
The trial will continue on Wednesday with more witness testimonies.