SIRESP SA, the company supplying the hopelessly inadequate emergency communications network which fails to function under emergency conditions, has fielded its first senior manager to explain that nothing is the company's fault.
The cable network used in provided by PT, one of SIRESP SA's shareholders which now is owned by the billionaire head of Altice, Patrick Draghi.
"It is our firm conviction that, as always, PT has fulfilled and exceeded unequivocally all the levels of service contracted by SIRESP," said Alexandre Fonseca, PT’s chief technical officer to the astonishment of assembled reporters.
PT says "there were no failures in the SIRESP network" and has fulfilled "the contracted service levels" and currently is in joint studies with the government to move forward with an underground cable network.
"We reject that PT's network has weaknesses. SIRESP has not failed." This interesting stance was reinforced several times by Alexandre Fonseca during a press conference devoted to the poor performance of the SIRESP system during the Pedrógão fires and others that have devastated the country in the last two and a half months.
Fonseca added that "our understanding is that these are not failures, these are exceptional occurrences," thus raising the probability that he attended the Madelson-McGuinness School of PR Bluff.
Alexandre Fonseca skilfully would not be drawn on critical statements made by Prime Minister, António Costa, nor on the vicious criticisms levelled at SIRESP SA in recent months by MPs, the media and members of the public who are not convinced that an emergency communications system that fails to communicate during an emergency can be classified as anything other than useless.
Fonseca added that PT has integrated two working groups in order to increase the resilience of the SIRESP network, because "we believe that we are part of the solution regarding the improvement and effectiveness of this network in Portugal," even though "there were no failures in the SIRESP network."
The SIRESP system largely relied on wires suspended by telegraph poles. With more than 12,000 poles burned in the fires and their cables destroyed, this may not be the ideal technology to employ during a fire.
About the Pedrógão Grande fire which charred 53,000 hectares of land, Alexandre Fonseca explained that PT has about 1,350 kilometres of cables in the area and that "more than 500 kilometres of cable, both copper and fibre-optic was burned out."
As for SIRESP SA taking any blame for supplying an emergency communications system that does not work, Fonseca said the shareholders are “serene” and ready to react as “your service provider.”
In that Fonseca is not mentally challenged, he must know that has been set up to present a company line which is as full as faults as the communications system itself.
