The Government purchased six second-hand Kamov helicopters in 2006/07, all of which now are grounded, to the distress of those running the National Institute of Emergency Medicine and the National Civil Protection Authority.The Kamov deal, rightly branded as ‘ruinous’ for taxpayers saw one helicopter damaged beyond economic repair in 2012 and two others breaking down - they have been in the repair hangar ever since.
In November last year, two of the remaining helicopters were grounded for maintenance and the only Kamov helicopter left flying, has crashed.
Everjets, the company contracted to run the Kamov fleet, is in dispute with National Civil Aviation Agency over the air worthiness of the two remaining helicopters, so currently neither the National Civil Protection Authority nor the National Institute of Emergency Medicine of Emergency Medical can count on the helicopters being available for use.
Ricardo Dias, president of Everjets, said one of these aircraft "is in full flight condition" and explains that a request to extend the use of an important part is being considered.
The National Civil Aviation Agency declined this request as it is the second time Everjets has asked the same question and already has had one extension of a year which ended this January. The Agency also is wary as a Canadian helicopter crashed due to this particular part failing in mid-flight and does not want to take that risk of the same thing happening here – a position that Everjets was fully aware of.
In his presentation of aircraft that will be 'ready for duty at the start of the 2018 firefighting season,' the Minister of Internal Affairs marked down six operational Kamov helicopters, assuming that Everjets would replace any inoperable helicopters, as per its contract.
Ricardo Dias confirms that one of the Kamov, a heavy aircraft, was replaced by two Ecureuil B3 light helicopters. As for the other two, he says that the second has not been replaced "because it is within its time limit of inoperability" and the third "does not have to be replaced."
The former Secretary of State for Tax Affairs, Rocha Andrade, was accused last September of ‘not acting in the public interest’ in the ruinously expensive 2007 purchase of the six Russian Kamov helicopters previously used for airlifting timber which may have served to age their mechanical systems beyond their years .
The Public Prosecutor accused Andrade of failing to take into account taxpayers’ minimum requirement of value for money by purchasing equipment that failed to work according to specification.
Back in 2014, the Court of Auditors analysed the 2006 and 2007 Kamov helicopter purchase agreements and concluded that Rocha Andrade bent the rules and certainly had not acted in the public interest.
The first helicopter purchased, arrived more than six months late so the State had to fund emergency fire-fighting air cover from Everjets. Fines levied on Heliportugal, the company that had sold the clapped-out helicopters to the government, were set at 15% of the total compensation the State could have demanded for the delivery delay.
Most of the helicopters that arrived were unfit to fly, a mechanical situation that managers at the National Civil Protection Authority are accused of prolonging, thus facilitating an expensive maintenance and repair contract with the private company Everjets.
Three senior people at the National Civil Protection Authority have gone, including the former president, Major-General Francisco Grave Pereira and the cost to the taxpayer of the Kamov deal has been around €42 million for the six helicopters, plus the cost of the deal with Heliportugal which had a 20 year maintenance contract which finally was terminated by the State which then signed the contract with Everjets for the maintenance and the operation of the decrepit fleet. The cost: another €46 million over four years.
Everjets got the deal and, so it claims, only then checked the condition of the helicopters, concluding that all but one of the Kamovs were mechanically unsound, persuading the Civil Protection Authority to pay €2 million to get two of the helicopters airborne again.
The Department of Investigation and Penal Action in Lisbon already is investigating the criminal aspects involving public servants in the Kamov deal and subsequent contracts and, under Operation Crossfire, has lined up charges of ‘suspected corruption, economic participation in business, falsification and prevarication.’
In the meantime, the Kamov helicopters sit in their hangars, either too badly damaged to fly, or ‘awaiting parts’ that nobody is prepared to buy - the cost to taxpayers so far, €350 milion and rising.
