“Irregularities in inspection reports on Tourism and Environment funds do not constitute crimes” - Olavo Correia

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Olavo Correia, said this afternoon that the irregularities detected in the reports of the General Inspectorate of Finance concerning the Tourism and Environment funds do not constitute crimes or corruption, but were sent to the competent/judicial bodies to resolve the facts.

At a press conference, Olavo Correia revealed that “taking into account the facts presented, the “argumentaries”, the contradictions, the Government understood that there is nothing that could constitute a crime”, after the analysis and compulsion of the data, as well as the contradictory ones. presented by the questioned chambers and companies.

Even so, the minister stressed that, given the doubts in the reports, the Executive decided to forward these exposures to the Regulatory Authority for Public Acquisitions (ARAP), the Court of Auditors and the Public Prosecutor's Office so that the competent bodies can resolve the facts and arguments .

As a result, he continued, the Government will decide on the points reported in the report, which, he revealed, has already been ratified to be published in the coming days.

The minister justified the delay in publishing these expositions, 17 months, as it is a “complex and enormous process” that includes the 22 city councils.

In this line of action, he stated that as Minister of Finance he did not shelve the report in question, stressing that in an inspection, any inspector has the obligation to “at the moment, communicate the existence of any crime to the Public Ministry”, without informing the minister and even ask for authorization, as required by law.

Olavo Correia was clear in stating that he disagrees with the dismissals of the managers of the Environment and Tourism Funds, as proposed in the reports, as he understands that, as guardianship, in the homologation, he has the power to make reservations, comments or suggestions in relation to the proposals presented by the inspection team or by the Inspector General of Finance himself.

“It is normal to have recommendations, suggestions, administrative irregularities. Those who are executing have an execution perspective, those who are controlling have another perspective…Irregularities do not constitute corruption or a crime”, assured Olavo Correia, who promised to work to put the country at the top in terms of transparency and the promotion of good governance .

Considering that the “report has several valences”, the deputy prime minister asserted that there has never been as much inspection as today in Cape Verde, and that the African Independence Party of Cape Verde (PAICV, opposition) has no lessons to teach in this matter. and that he is not qualified to teach about transparency and good governance.

“Before there were sporadic inspections, today they are quarterly. Before, there was no mention of the publication of reports, today when they are not published, there is a noise and it is good, before there was not. The PAICV Government has not published a single report for 15 years and we are publishing all the reports, once the approval processes are finalized”, he said.

For the official, “the PAICV has no history of reports, it wants to wash its image, create a scenario to present its municipal candidacies, but the PAICV has no morals, it does not have a curriculum to teach transparency in relation to the management of funds in Cape Verde”.