“No, of course not,” replied Gomes Cravinho, when asked by the Lusa agency whether the succession of news on defense matters, in the “Perfect Storm” process, weakens him politically as a minister.
In an interview with Lusa in New York on Friday evening, the minister also addressed the news published this week by the newspaper Público, which reported that Cravinho – then Minister of Defense – was aware of another case against Alberto Coelho, a central This is evident from the case of the overspending of more than two million euros in the rehabilitation work of the former Military Hospital of Belém, when he was appointed to a position in a state-owned company.
Gomes Cravinho, who was in New York to participate in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly when the news was published, admitted that he had “no time or interest” in learning more about the matter, to which he did not attach great importance. .
“I’ll be very honest with you. I have been 100% busy with the United Nations General Assembly. (…) I saw the Público news, I read it diagonally because I did not have time nor enough interest or concern to devote myself to the subject, of course because I realized that it is not a subject, in short , very relevant”, he said.
“Of course I will look more closely next week and give a fuller answer. But it is not an issue that has concerned me in the least this week,” he added.
In August, the Public Prosecution Service charged 73 suspects in the case related to the award of works by the General Directorate of National Defense Resources (DGRDN), including former director Alberto Coelho, for passive corruption, money laundering, embezzlement and document forgery.
The accusation related to the ‘Perfect Storm’ case, to which the Lusa agency had access, calls for Alberto Coelho to be ordered to pay the state more than 86,000 euros, corresponding to what they consider to be the ill-gotten benefits .
Source: DN
