Edmundo Martinho was heard during the morning by the members of parliament of the parliamentary committee of Labour, Social Security and Inclusion, in which he tried to explain what was the basis of the decision to create Santa Casa Global, the motivation for the internationalisation of social games and what happened from then until the moment of his departure from the institution.

"I was and I am an enthusiast of this solution, but this was always done with the consent of the members of the Board", he stressed.

The former purveyor of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) made it clear that all the investment made had only the objective of strengthening the financial situation of Santa Casa, taking into account the rigid structure of the institution's funding and the need for more revenue to meet the growing expenses.

Edmundo Martinho guaranteed that the guardianship, in this case, the minister Ana Mendes Godinho, "was always informed in detail of what was happening" and that the proof of this was in the fact that "she never received additional requests for information" about the internationalisation process and the amounts involved.

The former purveyor stated that all the investments were made available to the guardianship and that everything was approved, adding that the financial availability was included in the Activity and Budget Plans (PAO), which "were approved by the guardianship" and said he regretted that the internationalisation process is now being treated in the media as if the business had to yield positive results "right from the first day", which, he stressed, would not be possible, and that the negative results were expected.

Edmundo Martinho held the dismissed purveyor Ana Jorge responsible for having interrupted these investment processes "abruptly", which resulted in a worsening of the results and refused to be responsible for the eventual loss of around 50 million euros, alleging that this amount includes values corresponding to the non-fulfilment of contracts, non-payment to suppliers or legal proceedings against Santa Casa.

He therefore said that "it was predictable" that Ana Jorge would leave the position of purveyor of SCML, since no strategy is known for overcoming the imbalance between revenue and expenses and because the options of the current administration and their impacts were becoming apparent.

Edmundo Martinho also defended that the internationalisation of Santa Casa would not distort the social mission of the institution, pointing out that it would be a way of ensuring that, with new forms of funding, SCML would be able to fulfil its mission and recalled that in recent years the Government transferred the management of dozens of social facilities to Santa Casa, which increased expenses.

He stressed that ending the internationalisation of social games without finding another alternative form of funding "is a danger".

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