The mayor of Aroca, Margarida Belen, and the former mayor of the municipality, José Artur Neves, will begin trial this Thursday for allegedly awarding a work worth 42,000 euros without open competition.
The start of the trial is scheduled for 9:30 am in the court of Santa Maria da Feira in the Aveiro region.
In addition to these defendants, civil engineering entrepreneur Carlos Piño, who is also president of Aroca Football Club and the company he manages, will also sit in the dock.
The defendants are accused of committing malfeasance and forgery of a document with aggravating circumstances.
The facts are related to the paving works of a site located in the parish of the municipality, on the occasion of the municipal elections of 2017, when José Artur Neves was elected mayor of Arouca PS, and Margarida Belén was the vice president who will succeed him.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) considered that the contract was awarded without following any procedure prescribed by law for public procurement, simply verbally on the orders of José Artur Neves with the consent of his successor, in order to “ensure the highest possible number of votes” on the list they were on , the former as a candidate for President of the Municipal Assembly, and the latter as a candidate for President of the House.
Shortly after taking office as mayor of Arouka, Margarida Belén will determine the opening of the procedure by direct award at a price of €42,617.50 “if such procedure is instructed by or at the command of the defendants, with parts of the procedure as if it had not yet been carried out”.
The indictment also states that this contract “also violated the legal three-year limits on the date of the express agreement contract because it was a premium for services of the same type or identical to previous awards. occurred during this financial year and during the previous two financial years with the same company.
The deputy demanded that the value of the contract, corresponding to the criminal benefit received by the defendants, be declared confiscated in favor of the state.
In addition to this case, José Artur Neves, who was Secretary of State for Civil Protection, is also accused of procuring self-protection collars under the “Aldeia Segura – Gente Segura” program implemented after the forest fires. 2017.
The former ruler resigned in September 2019, the same day that the Judicial Police carried out searches at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Directorate for Emergency Situations and Civil Protection.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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