The Court of Auditors today failed idD Portugal Defense’s accounts for 2022 and detected several non-conformities in contracts signed during the presidency of Marco Capitão Ferreira, including loans of 1.8 million without authorization from the Ministry of Finance.
In a statement, the Court of Auditors (TdC) announced that it “issued an unfavorable judgment on the 2022 financial and budgetary statements” of the state holding company that manages public participation in companies in the Defense sector, highlighting that “the financial and budgetary statements do not present in a true and appropriate manner the financial position of idD, its financial performance, budget execution and relative cash flows at the end of 2022”.
Marco Capitão Ferreira, former Secretary of State who resigned from this position in July 2023 after searches as part of the ‘Perfect Storm’ operation, chaired the idD Board of Directors from 2020 until the beginning of 2022.
In his response to the Court, the former government official highlights that he no longer held office at idD when the 2022 accounts were approved.
In the same report, the court also issued an unfavorable judgment on the compliance of the acts and contracts signed by idD – Portugal Defense, SA between 2020 and 2022.
The TdC concluded that “the activities, financial transactions and budgetary information, as well as the related acts, contracts and operations, do not comply with the general and specific legal standards in force, namely, the provisions of the Legal Regime of the Public Business Sector (RJSPE) and the public procurement procedures and execution of contracts”.
This audit made it possible to detect “a set of non-conformities” in contracting processes between 2020 and 2022, which include “lack of approval by the supervisors of the Activity Plans and Budget for 2021 and 2022, a mandatory condition for them to take effect” and the absence of management contracts for the members of the Board of Directors for the 2020-2022 mandate, “despite the fact that idD submitted the respective draft to the supervisors sectoral and financial”.
The court also detected “the lack of preparation of reports on the execution of the 2020/2025 Business Plan, failing to comply with the deliberation of the General Assembly that elected the members of the BoD, and the quarterly budget execution reports in the period under analysis”.
The report also reveals that loan contracts were signed to support the treasury of companies owned or participated by idD, without authorization from the Ministry of Finance, totaling 1.8 million euros.
One of the companies mentioned in the report is Arsenal do Alfeite SA, at the time experiencing serious financial difficulties. Those targeted highlighted, in the adversarial exercise, that salaries and subsidies were at risk.
Marco Capitão Ferreira denies any authorization without the guardianship and speaks of an “implicit consent to carry out the financing in question”.
In the context of public procurement, continues the TdC, the audit concluded that contracts were concluded “without support in the Public Contracts Code (CCP) and with retroactive effects and without justification”.
In addition, contracts “executed without evidence of their award and contractual payments made on a date prior to the publication of contracts on the Base Portal, and contracts that were not disclosed on the Portal” were identified.
According to the Court, the members of the then Board of Directors warned “of particularly adverse conditions” resulting from the pandemic caused by the covid-19 virus, the confinement situation in 2020 and 2021 and the “lack of adequate human and technical resources”.
Marco Capitão Ferreira considers that “it is clear from the audit that at no time were there any acts carried out that harmed the public treasury or that resulted in the personal benefit of those responsible, leaving only the formal compliance of some procedures for better evaluation”.
This audit was requested in 2023 by the then Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, and by the Assembly of the Republic.
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