The Prosecutor’s Office (MP) understands that Alberto Coelho, Paulo Branco and Francisco Márquez jointly implemented a plan to deprive the government of the benefits of defense contracts, intending to return more than one million euros to the state.
The deputy accused 73 defendants in the process related to the award of work by the Directorate General of National Defense Resources (DGRDN), including former director Alberto Coelho, of passive corruption, money laundering, embezzlement and forgery. the “Perfect Storm” process that Lusa had access to this Wednesday.
“Defendants Alberto Coelho, Paulo Branco and Francisco Márquez acted in all situations in concert and following a plan developed by everyone, with the aim of conducting and making favorable decisions on contract procedures in the interests of companies and individuals. their relationship, what they did in exchange for money or other property benefits,” the dispatch says.
According to the prosecutor’s office, these three defendants “benevolently viewed the procedures without showing that they were instructed with all the documents required by law,” which was the case in most of the contests described, the report said.
The MP understands that tenders were awarded in respect of which the defendants “did not have competence”, as happened in the case of the former military hospital in Belen, and allowed the companies “not to have the technical capacity to carry out public works due to the lack of permits and certificates of contractors public works” were awarded to the DGRDN.
It is about the works in the former military hospital of Belen that Paulo Branco, the former financial director of DGRDN, sent a dispatch to Alberto Coelho on April 6, 2020, in which he proposed to allow the costs and award the works on TRXMS for 750 thousand euros excluding VAT.
On the same day, given the “need for additional work”, Paulo Branco offered to purchase contract works worth more than 1.8 million euros, with this amount going to TRXMS, Weltbauen and Roma Premium.
Alberto Coelho, according to the MP, authorized the two proposals on the same day, April 6, 2020, and did not ask the guardianship to authorize the costs, “which he did by applying the exceptional public procurement regime”, despite not having the authority “to authorize the initiation of a procedure, the authorization of expenses, the selection of persons to be invited, or the award.”
At a parliamentary hearing earlier this year, former Defense Minister and current Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho said that the first information he received about the “real cost of the work” came “from a letter dated June 23, 2020, albeit with an unsystematized and weak substantiated information.”
“This letter was apparently sent to Alberto Coelho on April 20, but it did not reach the recipients because it exceeded the message size limit and was therefore rejected by the server,” he then noted.
In the indictment, the deputy wants more than one million euros for the crimes committed by two dozen defendants to be recognized as lost in favor of the state.
It is also required that the additional penalty of suspension of functions be applied to Paulo Branco, Francisco Márquez, Hugo Valentim, Pedro Ramallete, António Capele and Catia Moura.
Alberto Coelho is charged with three offenses of passive corruption, one of money laundering, two of embezzlement and one of forgery.
Paulo Branco is charged with five crimes of passive corruption, two crimes of money laundering and four crimes of forgery.
As for Francisco Marquez, the former director of infrastructure and heritage services, the deputy accuses him of four offenses of passive corruption, two of money laundering and two of forgery.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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