Less than four months after the reclassified former Military Hospital of Belém was inaugurated (March 2021) as a Military Support Center (CAM) – Covid 2019, the former Minister of National Defense, João Gomes Cravinhoreceived from your Secretary of State Jorge Seguro Sanchesa extensive report of the suspicions to which he related instant job adjustments and the lack of clarity at the time Director General of National Defense Resources (DGRDN), Alberto Coelho, in connection with spending that had increased to more than three times the amount allowed – from 750 thousand euros to 3.2 million.
The former director of the DGRDN is the main target of the DIAP investigation in Lisbon, which led to his arrest on Tuesday, along with two other senior Ministry of Defense officials and two businessmen. There are in total 19 defendants🇧🇷
Active and passive corruption, abuse of power, embezzlement and economic participation in business are attributed by the Public Prosecution Service, in an investigation that began five years ago and led this Tuesday to a PJ operation dubbed “Perfect Storm”, involving 200 inspectors.
Not mentioned to send🇧🇷 Seguro Sanches realized that he had not received a “satisfactory and enforceable answer from Alberto Coelho on issues of authorization and communication of awards carried out, through direct award, by the Directorate General of National Defense Resources (DGRDN) in the work of the CAM”, stated the “conducting an audit to the legal conformity of the administrative and financial procedures of the direct amendments to the contract”. Gomes Cravinho approves a “visa with great concern” and signs it on July 23, 2020.
The skid began to become widely known, through the press, namely by the DN from June, and Cravinho was summoned to parliament by the PSD🇧🇷
“Money Not Lost”
Despite already having factual knowledge of what was at stake, the former defense minister and current foreign minister, in addition to requesting an audit, relatable the situation, expressing his “great satisfaction with the quality of work, which will be a long-term care unit in the future”. “It’s money that can’t be lost, an asset valuation higher than expected,” he exclaimed.
This explanation led to the PSD delegate Carlos Eduardo Reis emphasizing that he had never heard “anyone justify a slip by saying it’s money that is never lost”.
In a second moment, and already after having taken note, at least on February 16, 2021 (date on which he signs the order to send the report to the Court of Auditors), of the conclusions of the audit of the Inspectorate General of National Defence, imputed responsibilities and several violations by Alberto Coelho, João Gomes Cravinho went back to parliament on the 23rd of that month and tried to convince the deputies that there had been no “slippage” in the works of the former Military Hospital of Belém.
“What do you mean by skidding?” asked the minister rhetorically🇧🇷 “If we are talking about a work, properly parameterized, that ends up costing more, then we can talk about that; but what happened was not that, but a work that was prepared in a very short time and ultimately a greater intervention and that it costs more”, Cravinho explained, that is, he explained, “was slippage if the same work cost three times as much. (…) One is a deviation, the other is a slippage. It costs three times so much, but it is a more complete work than imagined”.
Cravinho did not share with deputies what he already knew about the audit. “It is for the Court of Auditors to decide on any irregularities. For my part, I drew a very clear consequence: the mechanisms put in place did not correspond to that moment, that experience,” he limited himself to saying.
It was also at that hearing that he announced that he had not renewed Alberto Coelho’s service commission, for the sake of “a new look and approach”, leaving praise for his performance: “an extremely qualified and capable person” who made “enormous contributions delivered”. to the ministry, who will always be grateful”.
Hospital deactivated after one year
In the dispatch he signed to send the audit to the Court of Auditors, the government official did not fail to usefulness and value of this work (…) clear and indisputable, both in the health services provided in this context of emergencies, and in the future strengthening of National Defense resources”.
In April, causing some surprise in the sector, the then Minister Alberto Coelho appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of ETI (EMPORDEF – Tecnologias de Informação, SA), a company belonging to the holding company IdD Portugal Defense (Indústrias de Defesa), owned by the state. According to the ministry, Lusa said he held the position until the end of December last year.
After spending 3.2 million euros to receive 657 patients (12 deceased), CAM-Covid was deactivated after a year (in March 2021) and adjusted in December of that year to receive 133 Afghan refugees.
In August, the government announced that it had withdrawn from transferring the property to the Lisbon City Council. – which had been used by Cravinho as an argument for his “appreciation” – and transferred responsibility to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, whose fate it was to study and present until the end of last year.
DN has asked João Gomes Cravinho’s current office, in Palácio das Necessidades, for comment, but has not yet received a response.
The former director of the DGRDN is the main target of the MP’s and PJ’s investigation, in which the current coordinator (already appointed by Minister Helena Carreiras) for the Technical Committee of the Cooperation and Defense Agreement between Portugal and the United States of America, Francisco Marquis, who was Director of Infrastructure and Heritage Services at the DGRDN at the time of Alberto Coelho; and Paul Branko, who was director of Administrative and Financial Services at the DRDN and also signed a file in the context of the HMB process. He was acquitted in June 2021.
Remember that Alberto Coelho was convicted by the accounting firmfollowing the same line of accusation from the MDN audit, the pay a fine of 15,300 euros for six negligent financial violations for the responsibility for the direct adjustments to three companies, for violating, among other things, the rules of public procurement, for not having had a higher hierarchical authorization (from the then minister João Gomes Cravinho), for not being documented and for further the delegated powers then go to the then director-general.
Unlike, this court acquitted Francisco Marques and Paulo Branco.
Source: DN
