Former Mayor of the Azores North East, Carlos Mendonça, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison with a suspended sentence for embezzlement, forgery and abuse of power in a municipality case.
Luis Borges, the former vice-president of the San Miguel Island municipality, was sentenced to the same suspended sentence for the same crimes, according to the Ponta Delgada court’s verdict, which Lusa had access to. .
The verdict came as a result of an October 2022 indictment by the Ministry of Public Administration, which charged socialist Carlos Mendonce, who presided over the Northeast Chamber between 2013 and 2017, and his vice president of carrying out works contrary to law in order to obtain “political gains”.
These are works that were not carried out in the municipality in 2017 by the construction company SMRaposo, which was also convicted of a crime of forgery.
The manager of the company, Sario Medeiros, was also found guilty of embezzlement and forgery, and the judges applied “a lump sum penalty of 100 days’ fine at the daily rate of seven euros, for a total of 700 euros.”
The court granted the Câmara do Nordeste claim for civil compensation, forcing the three defendants to pay compensation to the municipality in the amount of 17.4 thousand euros.
The judges concluded that Carlos Mendonza and his vice president, as part of their duties, “allowed the Northeast City Council to charge fees not authorized by law” and not included in the 2016 and 2017 budgets.
The decision states that Carlos Mendonza carried out “hiring outside of any public procurement procedure” between December 2016 and September 2017.
The two mayors, according to the decision, prompted the Northeastern Chamber to conclude “charges not authorized by law” by acting “freely, voluntarily and knowingly, knowing that they were acting in the guise of their public offices.”
The judges believe that the behavior of the former president and vice president is “illegal and criminal because there is no apparent basis for acquittal or exclusion of guilt.”
“As to the reason for this behavior of the defendants, the court has no doubt that they wanted to convey to the local population an image of dynamism in quickly solving problems as mayors and, in this way, to get political gains in the municipal elections of 2017. “, reads it. if in judgment.
In addition to being mayor of the North East, Carlos Mendonza was a member of the Regional Assembly elected by PS/Azores.
As early as January 10, 2019, the Court of Accounts (TdC) established that the former mayor of the North East may be required to return to the municipality about 12 thousand euros related to the payment of outstanding work.
The Court of Accounts then showed that the renovation of the property was at stake, with a budget of 18,700 euros including VAT, an amount that had been paid by the municipality, but the court found that he had violated the rules of “strictness” and “transparency”. “.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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