Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The Honduras prosecution has filed a tax petition against Axel Gamaliel López Guzmán, representative of Elmed Medical System Hospitales Móviles.com, who sold the seven mobile hospitals to Honduras.
The Special Prosecutor for Transparency and Fight against Public Corruption (Fetccop) will issue an international warning to arrest Guatemalan Axel López, accused of two crimes of fraud against public administration as a necessary employee.
Marco Bográn, former director of Strategic Investment of Honduras (Investh-H), paid Axel López more than 1,174 million lempiras, just over $ 47 million.
The former director of Investh-H was arrested on Thursday after he went to testify to the Technical Investigation Agency (Atic) for investigation against him in a case of drug overvaluation.
According to the investigations conducted by the prosecution service, Marco Bográn in his capacity as Executive Director of Investh-H and Alex Moraes Girón, its administrative manager, in violation of the fundamental principles of public procurement contained in the Honduran legal system, of said hospitals directly and fraudulently with Mr. Axel Gamaliel López Guzman, legal representative of HospitalMoviles.com and ELMED Medical Systems INC, who pays one hundred percent of the price in advance, without this provider having the required technical and financial standing, without stipulating the grant of the corresponding guarantees to the economic interests of the state and without the prior consent of the Invest-H Board of Directors.
“Axel Gamaliel López Guzmán is said to have made a profit of more than $ 20 million in exchange for supplying 7 hospital units to the state of Honduras,” the prosecution said.
Controversial transaction
Marco Bográn, former director of Invest-H, paid on March 19 this year to Elmed Medical System and Mobile Hospitals, represented by Axel López, the amount of 15.9 million for two hospital modules with 91 beds for covid-19 patients a unit price of $ 7.9 million each.
On April 2, it made a second purchase from the same company, consisting of a 91-bed mobile hospital for $ 7.9 million and four 51-bed hospitals with a unit value of $ 5.7 million, plus seven hospital waste disposal facilities. . worth $ 87,500 each.
In both transactions, Bográn authorized the disbursement of $ 47.4 million, approximately L1.174.5 million, without the approval of Invest-H’s board of directors and in violation of the Millennium Challenge Account Law and the General Law of Public Administration.
The mobile hospitals, which arrived in the country between July and November, of which only two are in use so far, “do not meet the conditions for the isolation and treatment of people affected by the covid-19 virus” , the ministry said. Public.