Kamov helicopter fiacso - 'not in the public interest' charge levied

Rocha Andrade has been accused of ‘not acting in the public interest’ in the highly suspicious and ruinously expensive purchase of six Russian Kamov helicopters for firefighting duties, of which only four have even worked.

The Public Prosecutor has accused the former Secretary of State for Tax Affairs of not having taken into account the public’s minimum requirement of value for money by purchasing equipment that actually worked according to specification.

Rocha Andrade is also in trouble over the Galpgate freebie trips to a Euro 2016 football match in France – all expenses paid but now faces far more serious accusations.

The 2007 purchase of the Russian Kamov firefighting helicopters went ahead when Rocha Andrade was the Undersecretary of State for Administration.

In 2014, the Court of Auditors finally got around to analysing the 2006 and 2007 Kamov helicopter purchase agreements and concluded that Rocha Andrade bent the rules and had not acted in the public interest.

The first helicopter arrived in Portugal more than six months late so in the meantime taxpayers were obliged to fund expensive emergency air cover from Everjets, to fight forest fires.

Fines levied on Heliportugal, which had sold the clapped-out helicopters to the government, were only 15% of what the State could have charge for the delivery delay. The big question Andrade must now answer, is ‘why?’

Currently, it suits Andrade to deny he knows anything about his new predicament. "I do not know at all the existence of any process," does not have the ring of truth about it.

Two employees of the National Civil Protection Authority already have resigned over the Kamov helicopter fiasco that caused the exit of the authority's president.

The Inspectorate General of Internal Administration detected 99 "non-conformities" when investigating the helicopter deal and the subsequent contract with a private company to provide air support for fighting forest fires.

Most of the helicopters were unfit to fly, a mechanical situation that managers at the National Civil Protection Authority made sure continued while an eye-wateringly expensive maintenance and repair contract was signed with the private company Everjets.

Three senior people at the National Civil Protection Authority have now gone, including the former president Major-General Francisco Grave Pereira.

The cost to the taxpayer of the Kamov deal so far has been around €42 million for the six helicopters along with a deal with Heliportugal which had a 20 year maintenance contract.

This contract was terminated by the State which then signed a deal with Everjets for the maintenance and the operation of the decrepit fleet, The cost: another €46 million over four years.

Everjets got the deal and only then checked the condition of the helicopters, concluding that all but one of the Kamovs were mechanically unsound.

Then the Civil Protection Authority decided to pay €2 million more to get just two of the helicopters airborne.

The Department of Investigation and Penal Action in Lisbon already is investigating the criminal aspects involving these three public servants and under Operation Crossfire has lined up charges of ‘suspected corruption, economic participation in business, falsification and prevarication’ while it continues to look at the purchase and subsequent contracts for airborne firefighting support.

Rocha Andrade, who nodded the agreements through, soon will be explaining his actions to a judge, and not before time as this series of wasteful events started a full ten years ago.

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