Defense Secretary Marco Capitão Ferreira hired José Miguel Fernandes, former administrator of Alfeite, for defense industries holding company idD Portugal Defense, but the manager was never seen in the public company, the statement said. Emphatically.
Miguel Fernandes is supposed to be preparing a study on defense economics, but the report’s coordinator says he “didn’t write a single line” and accuses Captain Ferreira of demanding the name of the author be mentioned.
This study, which can be consulted on the idD website, was signed by two coordinators: Catarina Nunes and Ricardo Pinheiro Alves. But José Miguel Fernandes’ name appears as one of four who “contributed to the study”, along with Sílvia Santos, Roxanne Merenda and Marc Sebastian.
“The study titled ‘Walking into the Future’, published in December 2021, was coordinated by me and I can assure you that he did not write a single line. All he did was send me two comments on part of the study, by email, because I’ve never seen his face,” Ricardo Pinheiro Alves, former director of the Engineering Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and now vice-chairman of CDS’s strategic council, told the weekly.
When he was hired, José Miguel Fernandes had just resigned, “for personal reasons” as chairman of the board of Arsenal do Alfeite, a company in the idD universe.
The current Secretary of State for National Defense is now under political pressure due to the lack of explanation of a 61,000-euro recommendation issued to the ministry in five days, after it had already been approved by a parliamentary hearing for the minister to clarify.
Source: DN
