Virginia Barbancho, who supervised Jésica Rodríguez at the state-owned consultancy Tragsatec, told Spain’s Audiencia Nacional on 17 July that Adif executives ordered her to stop questioning Rodríguez’s absenteeism because the employee was presented as “the minister’s niece.” Barbancho said Ignacio Zaldívar, Adif’s then head of administrative management, conveyed that the instruction came from Adif’s presidency, led at the time by Isabel Pardo de Vera. Barbancho recounted that Rodríguez, the former partner of ex-Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, neither clocked in nor filled out time sheets during her 2021 posting. After she reported the irregularities, Tragsatec’s management also told her to “make a blind eye” and accused her of “harassing” Rodríguez, prompting Barbancho to step down from the project after two months. Her testimony forms part of ‘Caso Koldo’, which examines alleged influence-peddling and illicit public-works contracts linked to Ábalos’s tenure. The court is due to question former Adif president Pardo de Vera and former highways chief Javier Herrero on Monday over related hiring and procurement decisions.