The PSD wants to hear in Parliament Foreign Minister and former Defense Minister João Gomes Cravinho and current Defense Minister Marco Capitao Ferreira about investigations related to this tutelage.
“There are serious losses to the state, there are exotic direct adjustments, there are gross lapses in valuations, there are outright disavowals, there are indiscriminate depreciations, there are objectionable withholdings, there are unintelligible defenses, there is an inexplicable rush, there is at least ‘One incomprehensible appointment, and the Portuguese must be given many more explanations. These explanations must be given by the government and, in particular, by some members of the government who are slow to give them,” accuse the Social Democrats.
The application, filed this Monday by the PSD parliamentary group, is part of Operation Perfect Storm, launched last week by the Judicial Police (PJ) in coordination with the Ministry of Public Administration, which resulted in the arrest of five people, including three high-ranking officials defense officials and two businessmen, for a total of 19 defendants, regarding the period when Joao Gomes Cravinho was in charge of this ministry.
The deputies of the “orange” bench emphasize that this is an “alleged corruption scheme, which included, in particular, the rehabilitation work of a military hospital in Lisbon and its transformation into a military support center for patients with covid-19, a task that lasted only three weeks, but cost three times as much as originally estimated”, noting that “about 3.2 million euros were spent in total, when the approved amount was only 750 thousand euros”.
PSD cites that the initiative “dropped out of an order by then Secretary of State for National Defense Jorge Seguro Sánchez, which highlighted suspicions of direct adjustments being made denouncing the practices of the former Director General of Resources. national defense [Alberto Coelho] beyond his legal competence and identified costs incurred by him, but not authorized.
The text emphasizes that “the inspection by the General Inspectorate of National Defense in the same case included very serious allegations against the former Director General of National Defense Resources.”
The Social Democrats argue that “the then Minister of National Defense [João Gomes Cravinho] objectively and allegedly discredited the content of two negative reports of her Minister of Defense, first concealed and then relativized the findings of the audit of the Main Inspectorate of National Defense, disputed that there had been a huge backlog from the enterprise, politically substantiated all the decisions taken, expressed great satisfaction with the final result.
“And to top it off, at the suggestion of Marco Capitan Ferreira, current Secretary of State for National Defense, he appointed the former Director General of National Defense Resources as Chairman of the Board of Directors of ETI (EMPORDEF – Tecnologias de Informação, SA), a company from the universe of the IdD Portugal Defense holding (Indústrias de Defesa), a man to whom, moreover, he addressed torn praises in Parliament, ”they criticize.
The SDP considers itself compelled to conclude that “the aforementioned arrests, as well as the underlying motives, all the facts described are too serious.”
A source connected to the investigation confirmed last Tuesday to Luce that former director general of the National Defense Resources (DGRDN) Alberto Coelho, director of the Infrastructure and Heritage Service Francisco Márquez and former director of finance of the Ministry of National Defense Paulo Branco are three high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense who were detained the authorities.
Called Operation Perfect Storm, according to the Judicial Police, it is a “criminal investigation aimed at investigating the possible practices of, among other things, crimes of active and passive corruption, embezzlement, economic involvement in business, abuse of power and money laundering, illegal activities related to payments by the central administrative authority to various companies that caused damage to the Portuguese state for many thousands of euros.
One of the five detainees is Alberto Coelho, former Director General of the National Defense Resources, who is alleged to have been involved in the skid during the refurbishment of the Belém military hospital.
After leaving the Directorate General of National Defense Resources, Alberto Coelho chaired the board of directors of ETI (EMPORDEF – Tecnologias de Informação, SA) from June 8, 2021 to July 31 this year, before submitting his resignation, according to the information released. company in Luso.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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