The mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia, Eduardo Vitor Rodriguez, was charged with malfeasance, embezzlement and forgery of documents, in a case related to public recruitment to attend Champions League matches. The charges were launched on Thursday by the Porto Regional Public Prosecutor's Office (PGRP) and the identity of the accused has previously been revealed Newspaper.
In addition to the President, Eduardo Vitor Rodríguez, the Vice President, Patrocinio Azevedo, is also accused (he was arrested and placed in protective custody as part of the case) Operation Babel) And the secretary of the Presidency of the Commission, whose name was not mentioned. While the president is accused of two malfeasance crimes and two embezzlement crimes, everyone is accused of participating in authoring the embezzlement and forging documents.
Eduardo Vitor Rodríguez was accused, on two occasions, one in 2015 and the other in 2016, of carrying out, at municipal expense, two public procurement procedures, one by direct grant and the other by simplified agreement.
These amendments “allowed for travel payments to third parties chosen by them (including other defendants) and For private and entertainment purposes, i.e. watching the UEFA Champions League matches of the football club,” can be read in the PGRP note.
The indictment also states that the three defendants, due to the second trip, charged the municipality for their own food expenses and those of third parties, through requests for reimbursement on false grounds for expenses “made on behalf of the municipality.” The Public Prosecution highlighted that as a result of this action, the public treasury was damaged in an amount exceeding 15,800 euros.
The travel purchases were “regular and legal,” Camara de Gaia guarantees
In statements to JN, Eduardo Vitor Rodriguez refuted these accusations, stressing that “the municipality is a member of the PortoGaia Foundation, which manages the Porto Club training center, and in this context, the municipality invited the institutions to participate in two trips.” The mayor confirmed to the same newspaper that “everything was transparent and everything was published on the main portal.”
The Vila Nova de Gaia City Council itself ensured that the purchase of tickets for FC Porto's two Champions League matches was “regular and legal”, as it was “registered on the public procurement portal, with all public procurement transparency implemented”. . He explained to Lusa that the tickets correspond to “institutional invitations to two presidents of the board of directors, two presidents of firefighters’ associations, and two social institutions, all directly or indirectly linked to the PortoGaia Foundation.”
The socialist authority said in a written response that it hopes “after eight years and at this very moment” that this accusation will allow “to clarify the extent of the regularity of the decision and its legal and institutional framework.” “This is another case that resulted from an anonymous complaint, and the President of the Chamber was never heard in this process, nor did he have paid trips from the Chamber, as he was a guest of the PortoGaia Foundation, as its President and concluded his speech to the General Assembly.
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