President Chegi today defended the resignation of Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho, former head of national defense, following a judicial police operation in his former ministry that resulted in the arrest of five people.
“We understand that Joao Cravinho can no longer remain as minister, and this is what we will inform Prime Minister António Costa this afternoon,” said Andre Ventura.
At a press conference at the party’s national headquarters in Lisbon, Chega’s leader considered that the current Foreign Minister is “the main person responsible for the situation we are experiencing today in defense, despite the fact that he is no longer the owner of the defense.”
Five of the 19 defendants arrested are the result of an operation carried out today by the SP, namely at the Ministry of Defense, in Lisbon on suspicion of corruption and other crimes in the performance of public functions.
One of those arrested, according to CNN Portugal, will be the former CEO of National Defense Resources, Alberto Coelho, who is allegedly involved in the skid during the re-qualification of the Belen military hospital.
At stake is around €3.2 million spent on a contract to convert the former Belém military hospital in Lisbon into a COVID-19 support center, with an initial work budget of €750,000.
The backlog was revealed in an audit conducted by the General Inspectorate for National Defense (IGDN), which targeted the work of Alberto Coelho, noting among other things the “lack of competence (…) to authorize expenditures”.
“In 2018 and 2019, we had news from the Ministry of Public Affairs in the Accounts Chamber about serious omissions. When the ministry changed, under pressure from Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, Joao Cravinho moves from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and praises his former director of National Defense Resources. He was repeatedly interrogated about this, he decided not to do anything, and the government decided not to do anything,” Andre Ventura criticized today.
According to journalists, the Chega leader believed that “when he was appointed to a public company, Alberto Coelho already had not only serious and serious suspicions of money slippage, but also strong evidence of serious violations.”
“There were serious, serious, documented elements of embezzlement and misappropriation of public money, which, unfortunately, had less than a decent result for institutions this morning,” Ventura defended, arguing that “the detention of former director of national defense resources, Alberto Coelho, is damaging image of defense damages the image of defense institutions.”
And he criticized that “it was Minister João Cravinho, who, after praising him highly, decided to ignore all calls from the opposition to reconsider his decision.”
“Minister Joao Cravinho is not a victim of all this, he is an accomplice in this situation. It was he who allowed Alberto Coelho to come here, he allowed, against all warnings, that Alberto Coelho remained in this place and it was he who allowed, despite serious suspicions that the situation would worsen, “Andre Ventura accused.