The former Defense Minister once again fails to recognize that the appointment of the former Director General of the Directorate General of National Defense Resources (DGRDN), Alberto Coelho, when he already knew that he had committed several irregularities in the conclusion of the contract for the former Military Hospital de Belém (HMB), may have been a political error of judgment.
Former Defense Minister João Gomes Cravinho is being heard in parliament to provide further clarification on the cost of the requalification work of the former Belém Military Hospital, shrouded in controversy since 2020.
Cravinho assumes that “if he had known” what he knows now, “he wouldn’t have mentioned him”, but that with the information available at the time, there was no reason to do so.
The appointment of Alberto Coelho as Chairman of the Board of ETI – EMPORDEF – Tecnologias de Informação, SA, a state-owned defense industry company, was finalized on June 8, 2021, long after it was finalized (December 15, 2020). the audit report of the General Inspectorate of National Defense Resources (IGDN), which alerted the former director to several illegalities in carrying out that work.
The former director was among those arrested in the “Perfect Storm” operation last December, where suspicions of corruption are being investigated.
The contract to convert the former Military Hospital of Belém, in Lisbon, into a covid-19 support center (CAM-Covid-19) was justified by the pandemic context and the need for hospital facilities, but the work, which was initially budgeted, costs of approximately 750,000 euros amounted to 3.2 million.
Despite knowing straightaway in the early stages of the works, in March 2020, that the costs would be higher than expected, Gomes Cravinho did nothing to stop it. On the contrary, even after the contracts were published on the official base.gov platform, which described all the values, the former defense minister, in every subsequent time he went to parliament, always denied knowing them and insisted always appreciate the works.
During this hearing requested by the PSD, the deputies will also question the Secretary of State for National Defense, Marco Capitão Ferreira, who was president of idD Portugal Defense, the holding company that manages public interests in companies in the defense sector. It was Marco Capitão Ferreira who called Alberto Coelho to ETI.
When Cravinho was asked by DN about this appointment in April 2021, Cravinho forwarded the answers to this person in charge. He stated that “the appointment of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ETI, SA complied with all legal requirements, and from the outset with those arising from both the legal regime of public companies and from the Statute of the Public Manager, the appointment with, as it turns out, subject to the valuation of CRESAP, which has issued a favorable opinion, under the applicable conditions and in the exercise of its own powers, independent”.
Updated
Source: DN
