Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The Honduran Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed a tax lawsuit against Axel Gamaliel López Guzmán, a representative of Elmed Medical System Hospitales Móviles.com, who sold the seven mobile hospitals to Honduras.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Transparency and Combating Public Corruption (Fetccop) will issue an international alert for the capture of Guatemalan Axel López, accused of two crimes of fraud to the detriment of the public administration as a necessary cooperator.
Marco Bográn, former director of Strategic Investments in Honduras (Investh-H), paid Axel López more than 1,174 million lempiras, just over 47 million dollars.
The former director of Investh-H was captured on Thursday, after he went to testify at the Technical Investigation Agency (Atic) for investigations against him in a case of drug overvaluation.
According to investigations by the Public Ministry, Marco Bográn as executive director of Investh-H and Alex Moraes Girón, his administrative manager, in violation of the fundamental principles of public procurement in the Honduran legal system, made the purchase of those hospitals directly and fraudulently with Mr. Axel Gamaliel López Guzman, legal representative of HospitalMoviles.com and ELMED Medical Systems INC, paying one hundred percent of the price in advance, without the supplier having the necessary technical and financial capacity, without providing the appropriate guarantees to protect the economic interests of the state and without prior authorization from the Invest-H Board of Directors.
“Axel Gamaliel López Guzmán reportedly made profits of over twenty million dollars in exchange for the delivery of 7 hospital units to the state of Honduras,” the Public Ministry reported.
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 of 91 beds for patients with covid -19 at a unit price of $ 7.9 million each.
On April 2, it made a second acquisition from the same company, consisting of a mobile hospital with a capacity of 91 beds for $ 7.9 million and four hospitals with 51 beds at a unit value of $ 5.7 million. dollars, plus seven hospital waste treatment plants valued at $ 87,500 each.
In both transactions, Bográn authorized the disbursement of $ 47.4 million, about £ 1,174.5 million, without the approval of the Invest-H board of directors and in violation of the Millennium Challenge Account Act and the General Public Administration Act.
The mobile hospitals, which arrived in the country between July and November, of which only two are in service so far, “do not meet the necessary conditions for the isolation and treatment of people affected by the covid-19 virus,” the prosecutor’s office said.