Tragsa has recognized “relevant deficiencies” in the supervision of Jéssica Rodríguez, the ex-partner of José Luis Ábalos who was hired between March 2 and September 1, 2021 by the public company thanks to the alleged influence of the former Minister of Transport. However, he has attributed them, “in part”, to “the pressure exerted by the external client”, which was Adif. Internally, she was treated as “a special case” because she was said to be “the minister’s niece.” In fact, internal investigations reveal that on at least one occasion his bosses filled out his time sheet.
This is stated in the conclusions of the investigation carried out by the public company Tragsa after the outbreak of the Koldo casein which the alleged irregular hiring of Rodríguez in this and another public company, Ineco, is also investigated. She admitted in her statement as a witness in the Supreme Court that she earned ―about 43,978 euros between the two places―, but that she never did any work. In the executive report, to which EL PAÍS has had access, Tragsa assures that “there is no evidence that said client had reported any incident or reported a possible non-compliance in the execution of the assigned functions.” On the contrary, it points out that, “from the communications maintained between the company and the person responsible for the project on behalf of the client, it is implicitly inferred that the worker carried out his tasks normally.”
It does reveal “repeated incidents in Rodríguez’s time record” that “were warned by the internal control systems, without evidence of the adoption of effective or timely corrective measures by those responsible for the unit.” Tragsa suspects that at least one of these reports “was prepared directly by one of those responsible.”
Among the testimonies collected by Tragsa, is that of Virginia Barbancho, Rodríguez’s direct boss. As he already did in the Senate and the National Court, he says that he did not see the young woman in the office and that she was not signing in. Although he “contacted her via WhatsApp on numerous occasions,” “he never got her to do anything.”
Another person in charge says that they have proof that Rodríguez did connect because on one occasion he addressed one of his supervisors claiming that he was not “capable” of making the time report. Along the same lines, they claim that he once told them: “Today I am teleworking.” However, they admit that they do not know what he was doing.
From “niece” to “girlfriend” of the minister
Barbancho also reiterates that the Adif supervisor of the project executed by Tragsa, Ignacio Zaldívar, told him in a phone call that Rodríguez “was Koldo’s (García) niece and had to be left alone.” At that moment, she asked him “who Koldo was,” to which he replied “the minister’s right hand man.” In the “blind searches” for “keywords” – such as Jésica, Ábalos, Koldo, Aldama or “communications with Adif” – that Tragsa has carried out on the devices of several workers, the word “niece”, “always” appears in the context of a hiring control document that includes Rodríguez.
Furthermore, among the documentation provided by the company to the Supreme Court, there is an email chain between four members of the company in which they discuss a “problem” with an employee. “On the other hand, Ignacio (Zaldívar) has told me that they have already called the president of Adif to tell her ‘what is happening with Tragsa, that we are forcing Jésica to do many things,” one of the messages includes. Another reads: “For the record, I haven’t had any contact with her for a couple of weeks. Ignacio laughed and didn’t give it any importance, but he tells me so that we are aware of what this is about.” Barbancho, who ended up listing Rodríguez as “minister niece,” claims that he realized that she was “a special case” when, upon asking Zaldívar what was wrong with her, why she didn’t sign up, he told him to “leave her alone.” According to Barbancho, he told her that the then president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera, “was very upset with the situation, but that, despite this, the hiring of Rodríguez was an instruction that had to be followed.”
After a month, Barbancho let him “be.” Because he believed he might have “problems” and because he was finalizing a job change and “he had two news programs left.” When he handed over to his successor, he told him that there was “a special situation with a person,” that in six months his contract would expire and, with luck, “they would lose sight of him.” He, who also contacted Rodríguez to have him sign the time records, does not remember being notified of that particular status but acknowledges having seen an email that indicated that “they should stop giving her so much work” because “the president of Adif had said” to leave her “calm.” Another Tragsa official declares that they sent him a email, because he was “bothering” the young woman, with a warning: “We’ll see you on Monday.” After months, the person who sent it to him told him that “it was Ábalos’ girlfriend.”
She had been “unhooked” from Ineco
Regarding the selection process, Tragsa has detailed that this vacancy was offered up to four times, obtaining more than 700 candidates, including 102 referred by Adif itself “to cover specific positions in two successive projects, developed between 2017 and 2024”, including the one in which Rodríguez was finally hired. The company admits that “this practice, sustained over time, suggests a high degree of discretion in the proposal of candidates” that “could compromise the principles of free competition and objectivity.”
Barbancho explains that, “in the specific case of this hiring, they were told which people had to be there because they had been left out of Ineco.” Therefore, it did not surprise him that the young woman and six other people had previous experience in that other company. In his opinion, Rodríguez’s resume “met the vacancy,” apart from the fact that “it was not an overly qualified position.” For this reason, they discarded profiles with university studies.
Of the 177 people who “completed the registration questionnaire,” only 9 met the requirements, according to “the system’s automatic screening.” Regarding that handful of candidates, Barbancho made a second review in which he discarded those who “did not have experience in the public sector or in the management of railway files” or due to “overqualification.” Two people did a short telephone interview, including Rodríguez, and a “competency test” that she took about 50 minutes to complete, obtaining a score of 7 out of 10. From there, she went directly to “ready to hire” without any evidence of “any other additional procedure.” In the first conversation they had, “he gave him a talk about the steps necessary to join the company, including how he should access the extranet and the steps to follow to complete the hiring process.” From that talk, he remembers that the young woman “was polite and pleasant.” Tragsa officials interviewed by the company itself assure that the position was not created specifically for her, while emphasizing that no one informed them that Rodríguez could have “some family link or relationship with a high-ranking official.” “They never” received “explicit instructions about who to hire,” they say.
In this context, Tragsa concludes that “it is essential to strengthen the selection processes, establish more rigorous controls in personnel management and guarantee effective internal communication mechanisms that allow the detection and correction of possible irregularities in a timely manner.”
