Prosecutors seek four years in prison for a Civil Guard colonel accused of falsifying documents to favour a company in the tender for 8,250 rifles. The manager and an employee of the firm face a year and a half in prison.
The Madrid Court is judging this Tuesday a Civil Guard colonel for whom the prosecution requests four years in prison for a crime of document forgery. The Public Prosecutor's Office claims that the officer manipulated documentation so that a company would be awarded the contract for the supply of 8,250 rifles intended for various units of the armed institute, according to the indictment collected by Infobae.
Alongside the colonel, the manager of the benefiting company, B.H.Z., and an employee, I.G.L., will also face the court, for whom the prosecution demands one and a half years in prison each.
The origin of the case lies in the announcement of the tender published by the Official State Gazette on September 11, 2019, issued by the Economic Affairs Department of the Civil Guard. The terms required bidders to present five sample units identical to the offered rifle, with very specific technical characteristics, and set September 30, 2019 as the deadline for receiving offers.
According to the prosecution, on September 18, 2019, the manager of the company met at the Duque de Ahumada Young Guards Barracks in Valdemoro (Madrid) with the accused colonel and Lieutenant Colonel G.J.P. In that meeting, B.H.Z. informed them that her company could not present the required samples on time.
Due to the absence of other offers and the risk of the tender being declared void, the manager and the colonel agreed, according to the prosecutor's account, to use as samples five rifles from the Civil Guard of the same type, after manipulating their identifying elements.
“After manipulating their identifying elements,” states the indictment.
On the same day, the colonel ordered a sergeant to remove five rifles from the central warehouse and transfer them to the laboratory where ballistic tests of the samples presented by bidders are conducted. He also instructed an agent from the technical office of the armament and equipment service to draft a material delivery receipt, even though B.H.Z.'s company had not presented the samples, according to the prosecution.
Five days later, the colonel, a Civil Guard under his command, and the company employee went to the ballistic laboratory, where they packed, sealed, and labelled the rifles. In each package, they included two 30-round magazines, a conservation and transport box, a cleaning kit, and an instruction manual, thus complying with the conditions of the terms.
Additionally, they affixed labels with the company logo and a reference to the tender file number on the packages, which were placed over the original stickers that displayed each rifle's serial number and the ownership of the Civil Guard.
On September 27, 2019, B.H.Z. submitted her offer accompanied by the sample delivery receipt signed by the colonel, which, in the opinion of the Public Prosecutor's Office, allowed the company to continue in the award process.
The trial is being held at the Madrid Court and it will determine the criminal responsibilities of the three accused for the described events.
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