Two more employees of the National Civil Protection Authority have ‘resigned’ over the Kamov helicopter fiasco that already has caused the exit of the authority's president last week.
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 who resigned last Monday. The inspection report concluded that the helicopters were not airworthy and that management had failed to manage.
The cost to the taxpayer so far has been around €42 million for the fleet of six helicopters purchased in 2007 along with a deal with the intermediary, 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 did an audit on the helicopters, concluding, as everyone already knew, that all but one of the Kamovs were mechanically unsound - in fact 200 faults were noted but Heliportugal said this was not its responsibility.
Then the Civil Protection Authority decided to pay €2 million more to get just two of the helicopters airborne.
This whole mess seems to have been run by crooked incompetents. The muddle ensured the Inspectorate would uncover barely hidden facts and figures which now have led to the resignations and, hopefully, prosecutions for those not only wasting public money but probably siphoning some of it off en route.
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.
