Minister João Gomes Cravinho assumed this Monday that in March 2020, when he was in charge of Defense, it was “clear” that the cost of works on the former Belém Military Hospital was slipping, but he categorically rejected that he had lied to the Portuguese Parliament.
Speaking to the press in Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, Cravinho admitted that in March 2020 “it will become clear that the costs will be higher than the estimated initial costs”, but he guaranteed that “there are none” in what he declared to parliament.
Cravinho said he will explain the process “in detail” at the Assembly of the Republic, recalling that in March 2020 “the absolute priority” was to respond to the covid-19 pandemic.
“Now I have to say that I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it at all, being accused of lying, let alone lying to the Portuguese Parliament. There is no lie in what I said, and I will explain this in detail in the Assembly of the Republic”declared the now head of Portuguese diplomacy.
On Friday, the Expresso newspaper reported that João Gomes Cravinho was told in March 2020 that the cost of works on the former Military Hospital of Belém was slipping, prompting Chega’s president, André Ventura, to accuse the foreign minister of “deliberately lying” to parliament in a debate about defense investigations and calls for his resignation.
“I will be going to Parliament to answer any questions Members may wish to ask and so we have time to go into detail in whatever you want and I will be happy to provide any clarifications”the minister said on Monday.
When asked why the works were not halted when the budget slippage became known, João Gomes Cravinho said it was necessary to remember the context, which was the fact that it coincided with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
“I think we have to go back a little bit here to March 2020. I don’t know if people remember what the national and international reality was in March 2020. It was a time when our societies had to quickly prepare for something totally unexpected. At the moment it was an absolute priority to build a capacity to receive future covid patients, in a building that had to be recuperated for that purpose”orphan.
The minister stressed that “there was an initial estimate [do custo das obras no Hospital Militar]it was realized a little later that this initial estimate was insufficient and that the actual costs would be higher”, but insisted that “at that point there was no reason to stop anything, on the contrary”.
“If I had stopped this issue, it wouldn’t have been made, there wouldn’t be a hospital […] The goal at the time was to create the hospital, there was no doubt about that”said.
According to João Gomes Cravinho, “the big problem here is the lack of authorization to spend, this is the central issue, which has already led to a conviction in the Court of Auditors and is now being investigated by the Public Prosecution Service” .
“The problem is that renovating the hospital, creating conditions to receive patients, was always something that had to be done within the framework of the law, there is no doubt about that. And that is the problem: what was within the law and what was not within the law”he added.
Finally, when asked if this case somehow “tweaks” his political ability to stay in government, the current foreign minister replied “no, not at all”.
On Friday, the newspaper ‘Expresso’ reported that the former Minister of Defense and current Minister of Foreign Affairs was told in March 2020 that the costs of the works on the former Military Hospital of Belém are skyrocketing.
According to the newspaper, citing a letter from March 2020, while works are already underway, the Director General of the National Defense Resources (DGRDN), Alberto Coelho, has been charged this Monday with corruption and money laundering in Operation Perfect Storm – the minister on “additional work” that has already generated almost an extra million euros.
On December 20, during the urgent debate on this subject requested by Chega in parliament, Gomes Cravinho guaranteed that he had not authorized an increase in expenditure beyond the 750 thousand euros originally foreseen for the requalification of the former Military Hospital of Belém when he was charged with Defense.
“Have I given permission for extra expenses above 750 thousand euros? No, the answer is no, I have not given permission and I have not been asked for permission”insured.
The “Perfect Storm” operation was launched in December by the Judicial Police (PJ), in coordination with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and resulted in five arrests, including three senior defense officials and two businessmen, for a total of 19 defendants, corresponding to the period in which João Gomes Cravinho supervised that ministry.
One of the five arrested is former National Defense Resources Director General Alberto Coelho, who was allegedly involved in the slip in the re-qualification work of the Belém Military Hospital – and who later went on to run a government-owned defense sector company, ETI (EMPORDEF – Information Technologies, SA).
At stake are expenditures of about 3.2 million euros in the contract to convert the former Military Hospital of Belém, in Lisbon, into a covid-19 support center, a work with an initial budget of 750 thousand euros – derailment revealed by an audit by the National Defense Inspectorate General (IGDN).
Source: DN
