Environment Fund: Former minister says he is “calm” and trusts in the “exemption and competence” of the judiciary

The former Minister of the Environment, Antero Veiga, told Inforpress today that he is “calm” and that he trusts the “exemption and competence” of the judiciary to “clarify everything and do justice” regarding the “noises” surrounding the management of the Fund of the Environment.

“The Court of Auditors (TC) only now did what I argued (in February 2017, in the context of my defense) that it should have done when it received the criminal complaint”, said the former governor, from Timor-Leste. East, where he works at the moment.

Antero Veiga made these considerations, when asked by Inforpress to react to the news, according to which the Court of Auditors obliges him to restore around 500 thousand escudos together with the former national director of the Environment, Moisés Borges and two other former general directors of Planning, Budget and Management of the then Ministry under his tutelage.

“There is no condemnation of anything. Still just “eventuals”. Only impulses of demagoguery, manipulation and intoxication of public opinion would give rise to the news published by O País [online newspaper] and taken up by other organs”, explained Antero Veiga.

According to the report of the Court of Auditors, which Inforpress had access to today, it was concluded that there was a “mismanagement” of the Environment Fund, and in 2012 there was an embezzlement of 28 thousand escudos, 2013 of 128 thousand escudos and 2014 of 344 million escudos.

Thus, the document continues, the TC did not ratify the Environmental Fund's management accounts for those years, alleging “many illegalities and irregularities” in the processes.

The TC also advanced that it sent the report to the Public Prosecutor's Office to determine possible criminal responsibility.

In 2015, the president of the National Association of Municipalities of Cape Verde (ANMCV), Manuel de Pina, accused the Minister of the Environment of “harmful, shameful and promiscuous” management of the Environment Fund, with “lack of transparency, deviations and clear indications of corruption”.

In view of this fact, the also mayor of Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Cidade Velha) filed a criminal complaint with the Attorney General's Office.

On the occasion, the Movement for Democracy (MpD), at the time in the opposition, formalized with the Court of Auditors a request for “inspection and/or an audit of the management of the Environmental Fund and the disclosure of the concomitant report, for global clarification of public opinion and civil society about this controversy that arose regarding the management of this fund”.

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