An ‘international tender’ for the establishment of a Network of Private Communications for the Regional Government of Madeira, has been awarded to a company that is owned by the island's regional government which has been led by the controversial politician Alberto João Cardoso Gonçalves Jardim since 1978.
The contract was awarded to EMACOM-Telecommunications Madeira Unipessoal Lda, according to a resolution spotted in the Official Journal of the autonomous region.
EMACOM is owned 100% by the Electricity Company of Madeira, which in turn is wholly owned by the regional government.
The €4.3 million deal is one of several that the company has managed to pick up in the face of private sector bids.
According to the Madeiran government website, EMACOM "aims to monetise the use of telecommunications infrastructure.”
The Madeiran executive considered that the implementation of a "unified communications system should serve the entire regional public administration with global and centralised management, integrating all communication services, data and voice communication, fixed and mobile," for a period of 20 years.
The government says that its "strategy for communications" is important, as is "the need for the establishment, management and operation of a network of non-publicly available (i.e secret) electronic communications."
