Africa-Press – Cape verde. Cristina Duarte, Esana Soares de Carvalho and Jéssica Santos, convicted by the Court of Auditors, will even have to pay fines ranging from 498,000 to 876,000 escudos. The appeal filed by the former Minister of Finance, as well as the former Secretary of State and the former DGPOG of the Ministry of Finance was “outright” rejected by the Constitutional Court. The case is related to the works carried out at the Ministry of Finance in 2014.
The Constitutional Court (TC) denied the amparo appeal filed by former minister Cristina Duarte and two of her collaborators, Esana Soares de Carvalho and Jéssica Santos.
The three were dissatisfied with judgment No. 1/2020, of November 7, of the 3rd section of the Court of Auditors (TdC), which dismissed the appeal filed by them against the judgment of the judge of that same section, which condemned them to pay of fines in the amount of PTE 876,080, PTE 843,440
and PTE 498,544, respectively.
They lodged an appeal with the TC, considering that the appealed judgment would have sentenced them to a fine and, as a result, violated their right of defense and the principles of equality, proportionality and equity.
“Both the Court of Auditors and the General Inspectorate of Finance would have, since 1996, for almost 20 years – taking into account the moment of filing this amparo –, considered legal the procedure for waiving prior approval by the Court of Auditors in draft contracts and in the contracts for the acquisition of goods and services worth less than seven thousand five hundred contos”, they claimed.
According to the appellants, the TdC itself, which “saw and is perfectly aware of the existence of such contracts, never gave instructions in the sense that they were not executed before approval and never imposed fines for not submitting such contracts to approval before their execution”
.
“And, as if it were nothing and without explaining the sudden change of position, Judge Ana Reis and the TdC avoided confronting this issue, limiting themselves to referring to their interpretation of the law, leading to a discriminatory treatment of the appellants, being ‘suggested’, in the context (which, by the way, was even referred to, albeit in passing as befitted something that would not go beyond a suspicion at the time), a motivation for this inequality linked to the political convictions (and responsibilities) of the applicants”.
The applicants also said that, they asked for the appeal to be admitted, considering that the only measure capable of avoiding the definitive violation of their right of defense and of re-establishing the principle of equal treatment before the law and their right to a fair trial and equitable measures and prevent the consecration of a measure taken in an “iquitous” process, would be the recourse to the TC to obtain the revocation in condemnation of a fine.
In question the fractionation of the contract
This case, which dates back to 2014, was featured in issue 512 of A NAÇÃO, on July 22, 2017, with the title “Cristina Duarte with 55 fines”. As reported at the time, the TdC had instituted 55 fines against the former Minister of Finance, for not having submitted the works contracts for the refurbishment of the headquarters and other services of the MFP to prior approval. Esana de Carvalho and Jéssica Sancha also incurred fines.
Between 2014 and 2016, MFP proceeded with the rehabilitation, remodeling and adaptation of the physical structure of its services, with the signing of 55 works contracts which amounted to a global value of PTE 133 thousand.
According to the IGF, the contracts in question did not comply with a set of rules and procedures relating to public procurement. And, because of this, having submitted the audit report to the TdC, for the determination
of the financial responsibilities of the employees involved in this process, and to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), for the purposes of determining any civil and/or criminal responsibilities, of those involved in the award process until the execution of the contracts.
History
In 2014, the MFP signed ten contracts, worth PTE 12,965 million, in 2015, 37 contracts were signed, amounting to PTE 87,000, and, in 2016, ten contracts were signed, worth around PTE 30,000.
For the contracting of these contracts, the IGF considered that several rules in the functioning of the State were not complied with. Namely the annual acquisitions plan, “which goes against the principle of annual programming”, and that commitments were made “without the prior authorization of the guardianship”. Even more, without proper budget coverage, not to mention the principle of rationality,
cost control and budgetary discipline.
The audit considered that for the execution of rehabilitation works, remodeling and adaptation of the physical structure of its services, the MFP should develop three procedures for contracting public works contracts, one of which, in 2014, in the amount of 12 thousand 965 contos , one in 2015, at around
87 thousand contos, and the other, in 2016, worth approximately 30 thousand contos.
The IGF said that the expenses were split with the “clear intention” of subtracting from the public tender regime. “Such behavior could have harmed public interests, with repercussions on the lack of quality in the works carried out”.
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