The Court of Auditors rejected the contract that had been approved in June 2021 by the former Minister of Defense João Gomes Cravinho, which entrusted the public company idD – Portugal Defense with the management of the purchase process of six ocean patrol boats (“patrols”). This company was, until the formation of the new Government, directed by Marco Capitão Ferreira, who in the interim became Secretary of State for Defense.
According to Expresso, for the Court of Auditors the payment -of 352 million euros- is not justified, since the Navy has Know how enough to manage this process, unlike the idD, an entity that the supervisory body considers does not have the experience to “build” the process of international public bidding for the construction of ships.
The decision is still subject to appeal, but it further compromises the deadlines of an already long-overdue program: in the first presentation that then-Minister João Gomes Cravinho (now Minister of Foreign Affairs) made a year ago, the delivery of the first ship was announced “until the end of 2023”, which has now become impossible to meet. According to Expresso, this was a process that generated a lot of discomfort in the Navy, but also in the Defense.
Source: Observadora
