The reason for the appointment to a public company of the former Director General of National Defense Resources, indicted on corruption charges and detained by the PJ last week in Operation “Perfect Storm”, when he was already suspected of committing Illegalities in the trial of the former Military Hospital of Belémwas one of the most pertinent statements expected from former Defense Minister João Gomes Cravinho.
Present in parliament this Tuesday, in an emergency debate initiated by Chega, Cravinho was questioned by the entire opposition about this appointment of Alberto Coelho as Chairman of the Board of Directors of ETI (EMPORDEF – Tecnologias de Informação, SA), a company in the world of to hold IdD Portugal Defense, detained by the State, in April 2021, almost a year after being warned by the then Secretary of State, Jorge Seguro Sanchesto the slip into the workstripling the budget from 750 thousand to 3.2 million, assigning responsibility to Coelho🇧🇷 Responsibility confirmed by an internal audit by the Ministry itself which revealed “legal non-conformities” that the Minister had sent to the Court of Auditors in February last year.
Deputies’ questions are “fabrications”
Cravinho’s justification, which began by classifying it as “fables” the doubts of the deputies, was the following: “taking into account his experience and accumulated knowledge in the field of National Defense – and especially without any ill suspicion at the time – I considered his appointment to a Defense Industries company appropriatea process that started in April 2021, went through CRESAP and concluded on June 8”.
It should be recalled that by that date several data had already been made public which, while not expressly pointing to “deliberate suspicion” (when someone knowingly commits a crime to cause damage), was already clear about any bad practices by the Director General (which were later confirmed by the Court of Auditors, which sentenced him to a fine of 15,000 euros).
Cravinho presented his “tape of time” claiming that he did “what is required of those with public responsibilities, at any time, on the basis of the information available”.
For example, he recalled the warnings of Seguro Sanches already in June and July 2020 (the Military Support Center – Covid 19 had been inaugurated on March 20) and agreed with the latter’s proposal to “send the matter to the National Defense Inspectorate”. (IGDN)”, which he did “the next day”.
Also followed the IGDN recommendation and sent the report to the Court of Auditors. In the order, dated February 16, 2021, which accompanied the shipment, Gomes Cravinho to pointed out “the usefulness and value” of the work (…) “clearly and unquestionably both in the health services provided in this context of emergencies, and in the future strengthening of National Defense resources”.
However, he indicated that he decided, Contrary to what the IGDN suggestedto not approve the expenditure in question, through a “decree delegating powers approving the expenditure, with retroactive effect from 20 March”.
In this way, administrative irregularities would be remedied. I have decided not to issue a regularization orderas it understood that some answers were needed to justify the increase in the cost of the work compared to what was initially envisioned. I therefore preferred to await the Court’s analysis”, he emphasized.
However, as already mentioned, he appointed Alberto Coelho as a member of the ETI, without waiting for the conclusions of the TdC.
reassessed control
When asked why it took six months to send the IGDN report to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), as reported by DN, the former defense minister revealed that after “mid-July (2021) new news appeared in the media raised serious suspicions about the contracted companies” and decided “on July 20 to ask the IGDN to reassessment of your original auditI”.
This information was hitherto unknown, despite the many questions that the DN successively sent to his office, which went unanswered.
According to Cravinho, this reassessment said that “the case established at the time did not in itself indicate the existence of any facts which might be relevant to possible criminal liability” and suggested that “given the new information and the re-investigation that had been conducted, the case must be sent to the Public Prosecution ServiceHe did so on August 16, 2021.
In assessing his own actions, the current Secretary of State believed he was “proactive” in sending “the message of the Secretary of State expressing his concerns” to the IGDN; because he has sent the audit of the IGDN to the Court of Auditors”; because “in view of the news of July 2021″ he has asked for a re-assessment of the audit”, and because for the purpose of this re-assessment he has submitted the audit to the Public Ministry.
It went on to explain, right, the political zigzag of acts and omissions de Cravinho throughout the process, as he was warned by Seguro Sanches and the media itself, since it was the DN who started questioning him about the derailment in June.
For example, because he had the IGDN audit classified as confidential, preventing public scrutiny, including from the deputies themselves, who only had access to it in July 2021.
Because the former defense minister, summoned to parliament by the PSD in June 2020, despite already having factual knowledge of what was at stake by his secretary of state, put the situation into perspective and expressed his “great satisfaction with the quality of the work, which will be a continuing care unit in the future”.
“It’s money that can’t be lost, an asset valuation higher than expected,” he exclaimed.
Already after submitting the audit to the TdCon February 16, 2021, attributing responsibilities and various violations to Alberto Coelho and of which he was already aware, João Gomes Cravinho went to parliament again on the 23 of that month and tried to convince the deputies that there was no “derailment” in the works of the former Military Hospital of Belém.
“What is meant 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 finally a bigger intervention and that it costs more,” Cravinho explained, that is, he explained, “was a slippage if the same work cost three times as much. (…) One is a deviation, the other is a slippage. It costs three times as much , but it is a more complete work than imagined”.
Cravinho did not share with deputies what he already knew about the audit and it was also at that hearing that he announced that he had not renewed the service commission Albert Coelho, for the sake of “new looks and approaches”, praising his performance: “a highly qualified and capable person” who has “made enormous contributions to the ministry, which will always be grateful to him”.
As is known, the cost of the works eventually fell from the initially estimated 750 thousand euros to 3.2 million euros and the suspicions of corruption in the contracts awarded were central to the operation “Perfect Storm”, which led to the arrest of the former general manager of National Defense Resources (DGRDN), Alberto Coelho, and two other senior figures of the ministry then headed by Cravinho, the former director of Financial Management Services, Paulo Branco, and the former director of Heritage Services, Francisco Marques, at the time of his arrest, coordinator of a ministry committee.
They face charges of active and passive corruption, abuse of power, embezzlement and economic participation in business and, as reported by DN, six other senior officials are charged.
As reported by Expresso, Last Friday, Alberto Coelho was also one of the speakers invited by the National Defense Institute (IDN) in October 2021, when the current Minister Helena Carreiras was director, to teach at a class “public procurement”. under the Military Programming Act. He was also part of the CRESAP jury that selected Carreiras for command of the IDN.
It fell outside parliamentary scrutiny current Secretary of State for Defense, Marco Capitão Ferreira who was the president of IdD that received Alberto Coelho in his participating ETI.
Source: DN
