Former administrator of Municipal Company convicted to three years imprisonment

Paulo Rosa Gomes, former Funchal City company Frente Mar has been convicted for the wonderfully euphemistically termed crime of 'economic participation in a business', which to all intents and purposes seems to mean embezzlement. His wife and a salesman were also convicted.

In practice, they were found to have pocketed Money for the rental of sun beds and sunshades, which is part of the business of the bathing resorts owned by the city. They were also condemned to pay Frente Mar a sum total of 68.000 Euros in damages, corresponding to the amount that they allegedly pocketed.

Rosa Gomes left Frente Mar in 2007 and remained advisor to the former Mayor, Miguel Albuquerque, until the end of his term in office, last year.

The jude said that the justice system could not be seen to be soft on powerful people, especially where white colar crime is concerned. Rosa Gomes is expected to appeal the sentence.

Source: DN

Eurostat questions hidden debt investigation

Eurostat has inquired the Portuguese authorities on the progress of the investigation into the Madeira hidden debt.

I imagine they will be to 'take a seat' (pode esperar sentado), an expression meaning you'll be waiting forever.

The fact that Eurostat questioned the status of the investigation has shocked the EuroMP Nuno Teixeira who claims that this is "intolerable intrusion" in the investigation which is still confidential.

This is an absolutely idiotic attitude since the justice system and its investigations have to be held accountable, just like any other institution in a democracy. Nuno, however, has been brought up in the Jardim school of thought, where the confidential status of an investigation is interpreted as an 'omerta'.

Supreme Court Rules Calheta Beach Hotel was illegaly built

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that the Calheta Beach Hotel, belonging to Bertie´s pal, Madeira's biggest contstructor, Avelino Farinha, has been built illegaly. The hotel, opened in 2004, may now have to be demolished.

The building was in fact never licensed at all! Calheta Municipality, which had contested the decision, claims that since the City Council did not decide on whether to approve the project within thirty days of the project having been submitted, it was automatically tacitly approved... Wonderful! So who in the City Council could be held accountable for illegalities?

The project also raised questions of the use of Public Maritime Domain, since it built within 50 meters of the sealine and site was only licensed for use as a restaurant for a five year period, which has since ended.

But Avelino continues to be in Bertie's good books. Last week, his company AFA won a government cotract for regularising the stream in Ribeira Brava, for 59 million Euros, while the two rival bidders had put in tenders averaging 40 million.

Paulo Morais on Corruption and Justice in Portugal

Of the cases you have denounced, have you ever managed to see one to its conclusion?

There are many. The Public Prosecutor has considered them and it is with some perplexity that I see how some have been thrown out, such as the Porto Underground case. At one point, the Porto Underground decided to acquire some land in Campo dos Salgueiros. It was valued at 5 million Euro. But the Metro decided to pay almost 9 million for a piece of land they knew was worth less than 5 million. I denounced this and presented official documents, valuations, the  meeting minutes of the board of directors, and the Public Prosecutor decided to shelve the process because they did not know where the extra four million went. The Portuguese people were robbed of 4 million in that one deal alone.

Is there no corruption in Porto? At least we know no news of any.

There is no corruption anywhere. For there to be a crime of corruption you need to know what is the aim of the corruption, what is the material gain, who is corrupted, who is corrupting, what links all these facts together and what all the connections are. An accusation of corruption only occurs when the corruptor and the corrupted walk into court hand in hand, and even then it’s hardly likely. In cases such as embezzlement or malfeasance, there can be developments, the accusation is relatively simple. But investigations are rare, and when they are made, there are rarely reach the stage of accusation, and  where [Public Prosecutor] does accuse the cases rarely go on trial, and when they do they rarely result in condemnations and when there are condemnations, those concerned do not go to prison.

Why does that happen?

Because the laws are complex, because the justice system is disorganized and functions in a medieval way. If we go into a Court, 70% of the people there are waiting. They should be called palaces for waiting rather than palaces of justice.

Paulo Morais is vice president of the NGO Transparency and Integrity

Excerpt from interview to I newspaper in June 2103

Madeira Secretary of Tourism refuses to go on trial

Conceição Estudante, Madeira's Secretary of Tourism has refused to go on trial to answer on two criminal processes. The letter of refusal was read out in the Regional Parliament. No one was informed what the charges are, nor even if the gravity of the crime would allow Estudante to claim Parliamentary Immunity.

In Madeira, its as simple as that. Parliamentary Immunity for Jardim's party works as a general amnesty. The opacity is total and the impunity legendary.

Is Illegal Block of Flats to be Demolished?

The ‘A Ver o Mar’ block of flats, where Jardim’s family owns an apartment was approved by the Municipality in 1996 and was built in 1997. The building was taken to court by neighbors who challenged its legality.

In 2005, the Funchal Court ruled that the building violated the city plan. It exceeded what was allowed both in volume and number of floors. The Funchal Court’s decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2008.

The Supreme Court annulled the decision which authorized the building and condemned the city to revert to the situation prior to the annulled act. In other words, to demolish the building. The City Council refused to comply with the Court’s decision.

Faced with over five years of inaction, another court case has been put in to condemn the city to comply, by demolishing the building, and requiring all that all the sales contracts, which are based on an illegal decision, be declared null and void.

Salazar Law may get Jardim and pals off the hook

At the centre of the dispute between the judge and the public prosecutor attached to the Court Auditor’s Office is a 1933 law. The Public Prosecutor is basing his decision not to prosecute Jardim and company based on the decree 22.257 of 1933, which states that ministers may only be held responsible for financial infractions if they ignore or override the technical advice of the hierarchical subalterns.

This is near impossible in Madeira where the civil service is peopled by Yes men and Jardim regularly threatens all those who ‘obstruct’ him with retaliations.

The big question is, will this argument also be used in the – never heard of again - ‘Cuba Livre’ criminal investigation, regarding the deliberate hiding of the Madeira debt?  

Jardim’s discourse seems to suggest this. He initially proudly claimed he had deliberately hidden the debt because Portugal was cutting funding to Madeira. He later changed his tune, saying he was not an accountant and that the whole fiasco was due to an incompatibility between the computer programs of two Government Departments. Will Jardim’s initial admission of guilt figure in the Public Prosecutor’s accusation? I doubt it. 

Judge Sends 'Connective Intelligence' Audit to Anti-Corruption Unit

The Court Auditor's judge, João Aveiro Pereira, has sent the audit on the financing of the 'International Center for Connective Intelligence' to the Public Prosecutor's Central Investigation Unit and to the Council for the Prevention of Corruption.

The audit detected payments worth 386.000 Euros made without bills and a payment of 1.3 Million for services that were never rendered. These facts were passed on to the Public Prosecutor attatched to the Court Auditor's Office who, despite confiming the evidence of abuse, determined not to send to those responsible to trial.

The judge states it is his right and his duty to express his firm disagreement to the flippant and strange way the Public Prosecutor abstains from demanding a trial regarding the financial responsiblities at stake. According to the Diário, the judge stated that the Public Prosecutor appears 'very worried about protecting' the governors of Madeira.

Among the three people to be held to account is Madeira's Secretary of Finances, Ventura Garces.

Court forbids Municipal decisions to be published in the Jornal

The Funchal Administrative Court has ruled that Funchal City's decisions are not to be published in the Jornal da Madeira.

The law says that such decisions are to be published in paid papers, not in free ones. Since 2008, the Jornal has resorted to a scam, by printing a 10 cent cover price to skirt the law, while the paper is handed out for free.

This situation had already been brought to the Public Prosecutor's Office by the Court Auditors in 2009, but following a two year non-investigation, the Deputy Prosecutor, Maria Gameiro, shelved the case, without a single mention of the law that forbids the Municipality from publuishing its decisions in freebies.

It took us one morning in court to prove what the Public Prosecutor was unable to discover in two years of investigation!

The management of the Jornal is committing a blatant fraud against the law and it is unacceptable that criminal proceeding are not brought against them.

Public Prosecutor's Office turns a blind eye to Government benefitting Jardim's Party

The Turism Secretariat lent a stage for the anual PSD Party Rally at the Chão da Lagoa. Such stages are very expensive to hire on the market, but in this case it was simply lent for free.

According to the investigation, the stage was lent by the Secretariat, at the request of the owner of 'Criterio de Escolha Lda', the company responsible for setting the rally stage. The Secretariat claimed it was lent on word of mouth and that they had no idea what it would be used for. Hardly likely since it was the only major event happening that day and since the date itself was postponed due to dangers of forest fire. But for the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Secretariat's word is enough to get it off the hook.

Once again, the Public Prosecutor's Office is connivant in allowing public resources to be used to benefit the majority party.

Madeira Tax Director on trial over tax evasion scheme

Madeira's Director of Finance, João Machado, the person responsible for taxes on the island is being tried for tax evasion. The charges are related to the period when he was on the board of the Nacional Football Club and alledgedly drew up a tax avoidance scheme for the club using an offshore company set up in the British Virgin Isles.

The crimes date to the period between 2002 and 2005. Machado, who is a member of the political commission of the Madeira PSD was appointed Regional Director of Finance in 2005. Despite the trial, he has not tendered his resignation and continues to enjoy President Jardim's full confidence.

The only Vice President of the club not to be charged is Carlos Santos, the public prosecutor once in charge of the Public Prosecution office in Madeira, who claimed ignorance of the whole affair. Carlos Santos was seen at the time to be very pally with the regime and he left the island under a cloud.

Justice system allows Case against Jornal to prescribe

One of the criminal proceedings against the Jornal for violation of the election laws has prescribed. 

Judge Iron Hand called in the Jornal to propose a deal which was turned down by the latter because the case had just prescribed ...after three years! 

There are four more cases pending against the Jornal for the same crime. The impunity cannot go on forever!

"Cuba livre": Jardim to face criminal proceedings

The Pubic Prosecutor's Office is to accuse Jardim and fellow Government members of criminal offense for hiding the Madeira debt.

Nor is Jardim to be allowed to shield himself behind parliamentary immunity as he has done in countless other cases, from violation of election laws to the dodgy dealings of the PSD Foundation.

Though he now denies any responsibility, not so long ago he was publicly bragging of having hidden the debt.

Politicians can get away with a hell of a lot of corruption in Portugal, because the law tends to be so specific that only what is specifically described by law as being corruption can be prosecuted.

Unfortunately for Bertie, there is a specific law relating to hiding debt...

He is no longer untouchable. In a recent inauguration ceremony he was actually booed by the population. The writing is on the wall for Europe's longest lasting dictator.

Eight charged over Jornal protest

The Public Prosecutor´s Office is bringing criminal charges against 8 candidates of the PND, New Democracy Party, for the protest carried out against the Jornal da Madeira during the last regional elections campaign. The Eight are:

Marcio Amaro, actor
Dionisio Andrade, retired journalist, former president of the Madeira journalist's trade union
Helder Spinola, University lecturer, former president of the environmental NGO Quercus
Joel Viana, PND General Secretary, teacher
António Fontes, lawyer
Gil Canha, City Councilor, former head of environmental NGO Cosmos
Baltasar de Aguiar, lawyer
Eduardo Welsh, sinologist

Criminal proceedings were brought by the Jornal's director, Rui Nobrega Gonçalves, no stranger to the Public Prosecutor's Office himself. Nobrega has been investigated several times by the Criminal Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office, but he seems to lead a charmed life. Recently, a corrupt magistrate in the Public Prosecutor's Office threw out an investigation into fraud at the Jornal which had been instigated at the request of the Court Auditors. The corrupt magistrate, by all accounts a friend of Nobrega's wife, who is a judge, simply chose to turn a blind eye to the law.

Nobrega's luck, however, seems to be changing, and his days of impunity may be over. The editor of the Jornal is being charged by the Public Prosecutor's Office with violation of the election law and the Public Prosecutor's Office has ruled that the charges have to be extended to the Company itself and therefore its Director, Nobrega. This is the first of four charges of election law violation brought against Bertie's paper.

Public Tender for Car Inspections Judgement

The Central South Court has anulled the public tender for car inspections which was "won" by the Henriques brothers, friends of Bertie's.

A rival firm, CIMA which had come in first place for the tender took the adjudication to Court in 2007. CIMA had actually made the best offer and come out on top of the list, but the Regional Government decided that the Henrique's offer was more coherent and better adapted to the Region. The Court has decided otherwise and the Regional Government may now have to pay a substantial compensation to CIMA for its decision.

Curiously, the same thing happened with the parking concession which Funchal City also attributed to the Henriques despite having received a better offer. The City also had to pay a compensation to the competing firm.

In conclusion, the Henriques win these tenders despite not having the best proposals; they profit from these illegal decisions; the Government and Câmara lose in Court and the taxpayer has to pay compensation to the other companies. No civil or criminal responsibility is asked of the decision-makers and the taxpayer foots the bill. Portuguese justice.

PSD Foundation investigation blocked

The Public Prosecutor's investigation into the Madeira PSD Foundation is stopped due to Jardim's parliamentary immunity. Jardim is the Foundation's chairperson. The Regional Parliament also refused to allow Miguel Mendonça and Jaime Ramos, both administrators of the Foundation, to testify.

The Foundation's objectives are charitable, but in reality its activity is party-political. The Foundation owns dozens of buildings which it rents out to the Party. In other words, they are not used for the charitable purposes for which the foundation was set up, but benefit from the tax exemptions associated to its charitable status.

The investigation was launched in 2008 and has been stopped for the last two years.

source: Publico

Jardim (and his cronies) can and do get away with anything due to the gross misuse of Parliamentary immunity to protect the systematic violations of Portuguese law. Criminal prosecution cannot touch these boys, which is one of the reasons they are in power.

'Deep throat' on Jardim benefitting from Madeira Offshore

In one of the last Parliamentary sessions of July, José Manuel Coelho, MP for the Labour Party, read out an anonymous letter signed 'Deep Throat', whose author claimed Jardim benefits from the Madeira Tax Free Zone. In 1984, a thirty year concession to run the Zone was given to the Pestana group, which gets the lion's share of the proceeds, 70%, leaving the remainder 30% to the Government. Deep Throat claims Jardim and Luís Miguel de Sousa (Pestana's partner in the Madeira Brewery  and a cousin of the Sousas who were granted the ports monopoly) are in on the deal, through a Luxemburg based offshore company linked to Pestana.

As Coelho read the letter the PSD MPs who invariably heckle and interrupt his interventions, listened in stunned silence. No one uttered a word.

How the Justice System is worked

The justice system in Portugal is not known for its efficiency, particularly in regards to combatting corruption. In Madeira, the justice system is highly compromised. A web of regime-chronyism has been built over more than three decades.

1. Bertie does not need to control the hierarchies, he only needs sympathisers and informants in crucial positions in the main entities: Investigative Police (PJ), Public Prosecutor's Office and the Courts (i.e. judges)

2. The Investigative Police have investigated corruption and abuse of power and their investigations have secured important convictions. They are very careful with information within the hierarchy, as they are aware of their weak spots.

3. Their investigations are sent on to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which is one of the weakest and most compromised links in the justice system. Many a thorough investigation has been thrown out by the PP's Office, even where the information is more than sufficent to convict. The PP's Office has long been rife with Prosecutors who have strong ties to the Regime, and the national hierarchy has rarely acted on the information it has at its disposal to remedy this situation. It was no coincidence that for the 'Cuba Livre' operation DIAP (anti-corruption unit) totally bypassed the Madeira Office.

4. One of the main problems with the Public Prosecutor's Office is that it is unaccountable and has unlimited powers - to shelve inquiries, that is. Only those who are direct victims to a scheme can appeal the PP's decision and they are not always notified. State Entities, be it Investigative Police, National Comission of Elections, Court Auditors etc, who send cases to the PP's Office for prosecution have no right to appeal the latter's decision to throw out the case. Ditto for any citizen who denounces corruption, providing all the necessary facts. The Public Prosecutor's Office is all-powerful and there is no control in the hierarchy to prevent situations of conflict of interest and corruption/negligence (it is hard to tell them apart since one of the most effective ways of letting someone off the hook is simply to allow the crime to prescribe).

5. Finally, there is the Trial phase. Since this stage is more public, it is harder for the powers that be to manipulate it. Nevertheless a lot of pressure is exerted on judges and there are judges who have judged corruption cases and who's other half is known to be highly involved with regime corruption. Often, the case has already been diluted by the Public Prosecutor's Office by the time it reaches Court, ensuring that any damage is minimal.  The judge can also throw the case out before going to trial, in which case it is up to the Public Prosecutor to appeal  the decision or not.

The Government’s 1878 Hidden Bills

Source: Expresso

A Court Auditor’s Report concludes that the Madeira hidden debt was the result of the deliberate actions of five members of Jardim’s Government: Santos Costa, Secretary in charge of Public Works between 2000 and 2011; Ventura Garçês, the Secretary of Finances, and another three subordinates.

The audit uncovered that the hidden debt corresponded to 1878 bills, almost all related to public construction projects build between 2003 and 2010. The issuing and registering of the bills had been successively put on hold.

The conclusions point to grave infractions in terms of not reporting  to the National Statistics Institute and the Budget Directorate General, as required by law. Those responsible are therefore liable to criminal prossecution (hardly likely in Portugal).

Those responsible alledged they had difficulty in circulating documents between the services, also blaming their computer programs for delays in issuing and registering bills. The Court Auditors were not convinced.

Such excuses, the report reads, could never  justify discrepancies to the order of seven hundred million Euros over seven years, particularly since there were several moments every year which obliged the Secretariat to make a balance of the budgetary and financial situation of the Secretariat.   

810 million of the 862 million unpaid debt, hidden over the years, relate to construction projects. A further 404 million correspond to interest on arrears owed to twelve builders – the result of extravant clauses in the contracts relating to delays in payment.

The hidden debt was successively regularized with the builder in 2008, 2009 and 2010 without ever setting a limit on the interest in arreas. Just in the period of six months between December 2010 and June 2011, the interest grew by 40 million. One of the violations of the Budget Law denounced by the audit relates precisely for the lack of justification for the accumulation of interest.

Why should Madeiran’s pay for this scam. The construction companies were in on the scam and did very nicely out of it, making sure they kept Bertie in power to ensure the money kept rolling in and that he would keep them happy with lots of new construction projects – to be inaugurated during the election campaign.The constructors – who are all heavily linked to Jardim and Jaime Ramos – should also be held criminally responsible for playing along in hiding the debt, duping the electorate to keep benefitting from the Jardim dictatorship.

The Bacelar Case

This law case reports to the nineteen nineties. It could seem an apparently innocuous case about a civil servant who illegitimately claimed large amounts of money for expenses, the unusual is that the the Public Prosecutor's charges were initially made against nine members of the government hierarchy, right up to the Secretary of Finances.

The story: Bacelar was an elderly civil servant who worked in the Financial Inspectorate and was reluctantly persuaded to become its director, despite being uneager and underqualified. While the former was perceived by the powers that be as a bonus, the latter presented a problem: Bacelar could not legally earn a director's salary. A solution was found to keep him sweet. He would be paid the difference in expenses for work trips to the next door island of Porto Santo - journeys he never made… he was obliging enough to sign in for work in Madeira, while he was officially away for work in Port Santo… Although the whole hierarchy was in on the scam, indeed they had thought it up and implemented it, only Bacelar was eventually convicted - the judge dropped the charges against the eight other accused before the trial began.

The story behind the story. The Financial Inspectorate had the task of checking on various matters, among them imports, smuggling and counterfeit goods - the services had recently been regionalized - and the Regional Government had a problem: Bacelar's predecessor, João Alberto Freitas, was rather keen on his duties. He sunk his teeth into the scam of importing out-of-date meat from the EU, unfit for consumption, which was relabeled and sold on the local market. He repeatedly inspected the Patio restaurant, then owned by the all-powerful Jaime Ramos, and was told by his superiors, in no uncertain terms, to back off. 

João Alberto didn't back off. He was removed from duty, subjected to disciplinary proceedings (filed by Bertie's pal Guilherme Silva) and sent to stew in a rat poison warehouse. Still having faith in the 'great leader', he wrote him a letter denouncing the whole situation. This coincided with the period after the silver exhibition was stolen from the Regional Parliament and the regime was shaken by corruption scandals. Bertie John, ever the actor, called on all those who wished to denounce corruption to write to him personally. 

By the time João Alberto Freitas wrote his third denunciation letter, his patience was wearing thin and the language he used also - the great leader flaunted the third letter as evidence that the man had never been quite right in the head. Of the corruption letters campaign, Bertie was to say that he had received 300 letters in all, but only one had talked about corruption. His Government was as clean as a whistle!

But the Bacelar case moved on, and however much the powers that be denied it, it was clear that the whole hierarchy had approved the illicit payment scheme - essentially to have someone docile on the job. The priority, Government wisdom preached, was to enlighten business people, not to inspect them. But why spend five months a year enlightening the business community of Porto Santo, where there were only a handful of businesses?

The Court Auditor's report was crystal clear,  apart from the detail that Bacelar had signed in for work in Funchal when he was officially away, there were no documents, tickets or bills to support the payments for Bacelar's obviously fictitious Porto Santo trips! The hierarchy, right up to the Secretary had to be in on the scheme! Bacelar was a bozo: useless, dispensable, a scapegoat. 

The remarkable and unusual aspect of this case is that the Public Prosecutor actually contested the judge's decision to drop the charges against the other eight accused - the only ones who had the power and the means to implement the scheme.   

The lesson: there are three legs to the Portuguese justice system, each presents an opportunity for Bertie to knobble it.