Portuguese government: “Domingues must declare his income”
It is the first time a member of the Portuguese government states this clearly. The state secretary for parliamentary affairs also says there are no indicators that CGD’s administrators will leave.
Pedro Nuno Santos says António Domingues must declare his income to the Constitutional Court (CC). The state secretary for parliamentary affairs denies there are any signs the administration headed by the banker in Caixa Geral de Depósitos will resign – after the controversy around the demand for their declarations of income and patrimony.
“The Public Manager Statute does not apply to the CGD administration, but they must present their declaration of income because the law from 1983 says so – invoked by the President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – and that law was not changed”, Pedro Nuno Santos explains in an interview to TSF/Diário de Notícias. The state secretary also says there is “no sign of CGD administrators’ resignation”. The Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios disclosed last Wednesday there are public administrators threatening to present their resignation if the Constitutional Court demands they hand in a list of their assets.
According to the same newspaper, the minister of Finance Mário Centeno has known since March 20 that António Domingues would not make his declaration of income and patrimony public. This was, as a matter of fact, a precondition the chairman imposed to accept his position. In his first meeting, the banker, now CGD’s chairman, made clear that when he took office, his team would present their declarations, and that they would update those documents when they were to leave to make sure the State could analyze the evolution of their income.
António Domingues had only accepted his position after Mário Centeno excluded CGD from the Public Manager Statute. The minister of Finance proceeded with this exception in order to increase the maximum wages’ limit for administrators and also to end the obligation of having patrimony declarations examined by the CC.
However, pressure is increasing. During the weekend, every political party has once again insisted on the need for the chairman and the remaining administrators to hand in their declarations to the CC.
António Costa, Portuguese prime minister, continues to refrain from commenting on the issue.
"The interpretation made by the President, the one made by CGD’s administrators and the interpretation the Constitutional Court will make, belong to them. We will respect that interpretation.”
