The former mayor of Caminha, Miguel Alves, who began his trial this Thursday on charges of malfeasance, denies any wrongdoing in the hiring of the public relations consultancy also accused Manuela Souza.
“On my part, my behavior was correct. There were no violations. On the part of my employees, whom I completely trust, the direct contract was fully implemented in accordance with the law. Everything was taken into account,” he said. This was stated on Thursday on Friday at the first court hearing.
The Public Ministry (MP) accuses former socialist mayor Miguel Alves, who resigned as assistant secretary of state to the prime minister after learning of the indictment, of violating public contract rules when he agreed with a businesswoman to provide advisory services to a message for municipality “without any public procurement procedure.”
“If I committed any violations, it was the actions of the company. [de Manuela Sousa]”, said Miguel Alves, admitting that he took advantage of the company because, knowing his expectations of getting a contract with the Chamber of Caminha, he played a game of cat and mouse.
The defendant also warranted that he had never provided any services to Manuela Souza’s company, which at the time was using the surname Couto, prior to signing the contract in April 2015.
Miguel Alves began testifying at 9:48 a.m. in the Viana do Castelo court, where the trial is holding its first hearing, after four adjournments.
According to the indictment, in 2014, Miguel Alves and Manuela Souza “maintained contacts for the purpose of providing communications services, image management and communications consulting to local authorities by the companies MIT and Mediana,” owned and controlled by the defendants.
The indictment states that Miguel Alves and the businesswoman agreed that one of the companies would “immediately begin providing communications consulting services to the municipality.”
“These communications and consulting services were actually provided by two companies, MIT and Mediana. […]”, but without any formal, contractual or accounting framework, namely without any external request, invoice or order or equivalent document, for the purpose of billing for services provided by the companies to the Chamber, of which the defendant Miguel Alves was aware” , supports the prosecution.
Those accused of being co-authors are charged with malfeasance by a political official.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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