Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro said this Tuesday that he was not aware of “any investigation” related to the performance of his duties as a councilor in the Lisbon Chamber, which, however, shows that he is available to cooperate with Justice.
“I am not aware of the existence of any investigation and I have never been called upon to make a statement,” Duarte Cordeiro said in a note released by his office.
The clarification by the Minister of Environment and Climate Action comes after today’s Correio da Manhã reports that the also former vice-president of the municipality is the target of new complaints about the hiring process of former socialist mayor and businessman Joaquim Lives the.
“The indictment, which is at the Public Prosecutor’s Office and was attached to the trial examining Morão’s lease in Lisbon, reveals the closeness of António Costa [ex-presidente do município] and Duarte Cordeiro and guarantees that Morão, who would raise money for the party through public works, only reported to that official,” the newspaper writes.
Duarte Cordeiro, who has been president of the Socialist Party’s Lisbon Urban Area Federation since 2018, said in the statement that he does not recall having “conversations with Joaquim Morão” in that state, underlining that the businessman’s work in the municipality – advice regarding requalification works in the city – “had no connection” with his guardianship.
“Of course I could have been with him while he fulfilled the duties he was hired to do,” he says.
The minister says he hopes “that the Public Prosecution Service handles these complaints quickly and clearly” and says in his mandates in the municipality that he is “reachable for any question or doubt about any action that has taken place”.
Duarte Cordeiro also mentions that one “cannot tolerate an environment where complaints made in a professional manner are credible”.
The socialist was elected as a councilor in the capital in 2013, in an executive branch led by the current prime minister, António Costa.
In 2015, when Costa left the municipal administration and Fernando Medina (current Finance Minister) became president of the College of Mayor and Aldermen, Duarte Cordeiro became vice-president.
Urban Hygiene, Proximity Structures, Economy, Innovation, Urban Services and Sport were portfolios of the also former President of the PS Council of Lisbon, who left City Hall in 2019 to join the government of António Costa.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, three companies and their legal representatives have been charged in the process that led to searches at Lisbon’s city council last week.
TVI/CNN Portugal reported on Wednesday that judicial police carried out searches in the Lisbon Chamber for “suspicions of corruption, economic participation in business and forgery”, in a “service agreement signed in 2015” by the then president of the municipality, Fernando Medina.
Público recalled in its Thursday edition that it was concerned, as the newspaper reported in 2018, about contracting, between 2015 and 2016, consultancy services for the “history” of PS Joaquim Morão, former mayor in Idanha-a-Nova and Castelo Branco, for technical support in the management of municipal projects and works.
According to TVI/CNN Portugal, it concerns “the violation of the rules for hiring a PS historian in Castelo Branco for the purpose of managing public works in the capital”.
“The Public Prosecution Service believes that the purpose of the scheme was to collect money for public works, with bribes from contractors, for the illegal financing of the PS, through the so-called blue bags,” TVI said.
Speaking to journalists, Fernando Medina said he had asked to be heard in the context of the process that led to searches in the Lisbon Chamber, insisting, however, that he was “absolutely” unaware of the ongoing investigation .
In a note to Lusa, the “historic” socialist and former mayor of Castelo Branco Joaquim Morão said he had not committed an unlawful act in the context of providing advisory services to the Chamber of Lisbon, expressing his full availability to cooperate to the investigation.
Source: DN
