The minister confirmed that the Ministry of Defense is conducting “almost three dozen checks”

On Monday, the defense minister confirmed there were “nearly three dozen” audits under way at the ministry she leads and said allegations made by former finance manager Paulo Branco were “slander”, warning that “not everything matters”.

“There are more than two dozen, almost three dozen ongoing audits, audits have been requested, but I would like to emphasize that in addition to these ongoing audits, we need to raise awareness and educate people about a culture that anticipates, anticipates and discourages illegal activities and corruption.” , said Helena Carreiras from Matosinhos, Porto district.

As she explained, some of these inspections were requested by her: “In addition, over the past year I have announced an increase in the range of inspections, some of them are regular inspections of the National Inspectorate of National Defense, others are at my request, precisely so that we can provide greater transparency and better understanding of what is happening and, above all, prevent a repeat of situations that have occurred in the past.”

According to news reports, News Diarywhich cites Helena Carreiras’ office, 17 of those 29 audits “are related to government work contracts, government procurement, financial flows and internal control systems, implementation of the Military Infrastructure Law and the Defense Programming Law.”

Once again faced with statements addressed to To express former director of the Financial Management Service of the Ministry of National Defense, accused of corruption and money laundering during Operation Perfect Storm, that the department “for many years” financed the scientific investigations of Helena Carreiras so that the investigator could give the “Stamp of Science” to the data collected The Directorate General of the Ministry of Defense, Helena Carreiras, denied these accusations.

“This is slander, these are completely unfounded accusations (…) “We cannot afford to intimidate or allow such accusations from people who are accused of corruption and who, in accordance with a recognized strategy, seek to smear and raise suspicions.” so that others can win,” he said.

“Not everything goes well, so we have to fight such statements with facts,” he concluded.

Paulo Branco’s statements, according to Expresso, were made in July before the prosecutor of the Department of Investigation and Criminal Punishment (DIAP) in Lisbon, with Paulo Branco devaluing the work of a professor who had studied military sociology for more than 20 years.

According to To expresson the ISCTE website there are two studies funded by the Directorate General of National Defense Resources (DGRDN) and one by the Ministry of Defense, coordinated by Helena Carreiras, with a total cost of 20.4 thousand euros, of which 10.8 thousand euros went to pay the researcher.