António Cotrim / Lusa
Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo
At issue are contracts signed with the company Proskipper between 2017 and 2020, when Gouveia e Melo was a commander in the Navy. The presidential candidate says he has a clear conscience and questions the timing of the revelation just a few weeks before the elections.
The Public Ministry (MP) of Almada opened an investigation into several direct adjustments approved by Henrique Gouveia e Melo during the period in which he served as Naval Commander of the Navy, between 2017 and 2020.
According to an investigation by , the process is being investigated by the Military Judiciary Police (PJM), which already delivered to the MP, around four years ago, an expert report and a final report. Among the researchers’ conclusions is the identification of a number considered excessive direct adjustments to the company Proskippermeanwhile dissolved in October 2022. According to PJM, 57 suspicious contracts were detected, all approved by Gouveia e Melo.
One of the contracts analyzed concerned the acquisition of inflatable life jackets. PJM concluded that two of the companies consulted — Proskipper and ZMP-Service Center — had the same managing partnerwith Proskipper still holding 50% of the share capital of the latter. A third company consulted did not have the technical qualifications to supply the material, which resulted in Proskipper being the only competitor and winner of the contract.
During the period between 2010 and 2018, Proskipper celebrated 137 contracts with the Stateof which 124 were with the Navy, totaling 2.1 million euros, representing around 80% of its public revenue.
Direct adjustments continued to dominate the Navy’s public contracting with Gouveia e Melo as chief of the Navy’s General Staff. In 2023, 63 contracts above 50 thousand euros were awarded without a tender, totaling 13 million euros.
“I am completely transparent”
Gouveia e Melo expressed calm about the investigation, stating that “those who should not fear it”, and declared themselves available to respond if notified.
“I am completely transparent. Those who should not, do not fear. If notified, I will respond. We don’t hide anything“, he stated, in response to journalists in Angra do Heroísmo, in the Azores, on the sidelines of a visit to the Start Up Angra business incubator.
The presidential candidate said that he was never notified, nor heard, adding that he was not even aware of the existence of the process at DCIAP in Almada, having only discovered it on Saturday.
“If you want to ask questions, please Call me and I’ll clear up your doubts whatever is necessary about my procedures, about the way I decided, why I decided in a certain way. I’m completely calm,” he said.
Gouveia e Melo said that he had “no businessman” who paid him or with whom he was associated, stressing that he was always honest and that he tried to “decide at all times always in favor of the State”.
“Has anyone ever accused me of this? If someone accuses me of this that I mean facebecause I only earned my salary, I never had contact with suppliers. Come and accuse me to my face and with proof that I had direct gains, don’t come and insinuate”, he stressed.
The presidential candidate questioned the time at which the news was released: “How come 15 days before the electoral process something from 2017 or 2018 appears. Isn’t there a coincidence? I find this coincidence very strange”.
Gouveia e Melo said he was “the head of the Navy who contributed most to improving administrative-financial procedures”, as he identified “many weaknesses in the State that could be taken advantage of”.
“I made specific orders to create highly professionalized centerswhich would avoid a set of situations that could give rise to proceedings in some way that would compromise the Navy”, he assured.
However, he claimed that when he took office there was “an administrative-financial structure that dealt with acquisitions”, which “he had no power to change”.
“Although I was the leader of this sector, which was the operations sector, we had a structure underneath that dealt with these processes. I never dealt directly with suppliers, I never talked to suppliers, I don’t know the suppliers”, he assured.
Reiterating that he does not know what is being verified in the investigation, the candidate revealed that there were administrative levels that came to him to authorize payments, but “the entire administrative process was prepared by an entity that was professional”.
“If you want to accuse me of anything, accuse me to my face, so I can defend myself in the right forum, now last-minute insinuations that I am linked to processes that I don’t even know what they are. I don’t know what processes they are referring to. Tell me clearly what it is so I can defend myself and explain why I made certain decisions at the time”, he stressed.
