Defence minister described shipyard as “technically bankrupt” last month
The entire board of directors of the ‘Arsenal do Alfeite’ (the shipyard servicing the Portuguese Navy) has resigned today following the announcement by defence minister Nuno Melo last month that the ‘business’ was technically bankrupt.
According to a number of sources, the resignations have already been submitted to shareholder IdD Portugal Defence – the state-owned holding company that owns the shipyard.
Chairman of the board, José Luís Serra Rodrigues, took office in January 2021, after his predecessor, José Miguel Antunes Fernandes, resigned for ‘personal reasons’.
According to Nuno Melo, the shipyard has taken out loans of around €2 million euros to pay salaries and meet tax obligations.
“We received a technically bankrupt Arsenal do Alfeite, with numerous ships held up well beyond the deadline for their maintenance, causing great damage to the fulfilment of missions, and to the effectiveness of the Portuguese Navy”, he admitted, stressing the current government will now have to find a solution to “the tragic financial situation” and proposals for “possible measures aimed at another model that guarantees the Portuguese Navy what it needs”.
Coming on the back of all the ‘big talk’ in Washington earlier this month about beefing defence spending and fomenting a national defence cluster, the reality appears to be a Navy kept afloat (or not) by a shipyard in disarray.
Lusa writes that the Arsenal do Alfeite has experienced serious financial problems in the past, which led to delays in salaries and even Christmas bonuses in 2020 for the more than 400 workers who make up this company, which is responsible for repairing and maintaining the Portuguese Navy’s ships.
The condition of Portuguese Navy ships is not something that ‘gets out’ a great deal, but when it does, they do indeed sound as if a new broom, and quite a bit more in-between, is needed at the state shipyard. ND
Source material: LUSA
