The secretaries of the Madeira government, allegedly under investigation in the framework of the “AB INITIO” operation, rejected this Sunday “possible illegalities” in public tenders and stressed that all rules were respected.
“The Regional Secretariat for Health and Civil Protection [da Madeira] It is reported that all competitive procedures carried out respect all the rules of public competitions,” reads a note distributed at the beginning of the evening.
On Tuesday, the Judicial Police carried out an operation in Madeira related to alleged economic and financial crimes, which it called “AB INITIO”.
The charges relate to suspected crimes relating to financial participation in a business, the improper receipt or offering of an advantage, misconduct and prohibited financing of political parties.
At least 25 tenders carried out between 2020 and 2024 are being investigated, for a total amount of more than one million euros (VAT not included).
In the note now released, the Secretariat supervised by Pedro Ramos also highlights that it is “totally false to associate the name of the regional secretary of Health and Civil Protection and other health and civil protection leaders with accusations based on possible illegalities.”
The Department of Equipment and Infrastructure, supervised by Pedro Fino, also states, in a note sent to the Lusa agency, that it is “completely false” that the regional secretary “has committed any illegality in the competitions and prizes that he has promoted to date.”
In the note, which is a reaction to “news hypothetically based on sources from the Public Prosecutor’s Office” disseminated this Sunday by several media outlets, such as Observador, and which indicate that Pedro Fino and the secretaries of Finance, Rogério Gouveia, and the secretary of Health and Civil Protection are being investigated in this process, the department of the Government of Madeira (PSD) recalls that the executive secretariats “have internal mechanisms for verification and validation of all their activity and, in particular, of the public tenders they promote, in order to guarantee greater transparency and legality of their procedures”.
Therefore, the note states that the Department of Equipment and Infrastructure “vehemently denies any news circulated that casts doubt on the above.”
“The Regional Secretariat for Equipment and Infrastructure will calmly await the progress of the investigation that is allegedly behind the aforementioned news, and hopes that the clarifications it deems appropriate will be requested as soon as possible,” the note adds.
On Tuesday, within the framework of the “AB INITIO” investigation, the president of the Calheta City Council and of the Association of Municipalities of Madeira (AMRAM), Carlos Teles, the president of the board of directors of the Institute of Sanitary Administration of Madeira (Iasaúde), Bruno Freitas, the former regional secretary of Agriculture, Humberto Vasconcelos, the former director of Agriculture and Regional Development, Paulo Santos, two employees of this same department of the Regional Government and the businessmen Humberto Drumond and Miguel Nóbrega.
The secretary general of PSD/Madeira, José Prada, was also charged.
All those arrested were released on Thursday, subject to an Identity and Residence Term, a ban on contacting each other and an obligation to notify the court if they are absent from Madeira, but without confiscation of their passports.
Only the president of the advisory board of the Madeira Institute of Health Administration (Iasaúde), Bruno Freitas, was suspended from his public office.
Source: Observadora
