Portugal has new laws, more staff, better tech to fight corruption – PM

The Prime Minister considered on Thursday that the National Strategy against Corruption allows Portugal to have more adequate laws to face the growing complexity of economic and financial crime, but also to have more officers and better technological equipment.

This position was stated by António Costa during a session at the Judiciary Police (PJ), in Lisbon, which marked the International Day against Corruption, after speeches made by the director of the PJ, Luís Neves, the Attorney General, Lucília Gago, and the interior and justice minister, Francisca Van Dunem.

In a speech lasting about 30 minutes, António Costa read out part of a speech he made in 2000, at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the PJ, in Porto, when he was the Minister of Justice of the second executive led by António Guterres. It was a speech in which he maintained that the largest reinforcement of human resources for the PJ was underway.

“Two decades later, I am pleased to hear the current PJ director saying the same thing here regarding the last years”, he said, before advocating that “there are good reasons to trust” that the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, which is currently underway, “will not be simply one more strategy”.

“Beyond the set of legal instruments in which it has already been translated, this strategy will continue to be embodied in other legal instruments, especially in human and technological capacity”, he promised, already after alluding to the fact that about 100 trainees of the PJ are ready to enter into service on 4 February.

“On 10 January, another 100 PJ candidates will start training. And later this year a new competition will be opened for another 70 vacancies for inspectors, who will enter training at the beginning of 2023,” he pointed out.

Along with the recruitment of inspectors, a process is underway to provide the PJ “with other skills and other professionals to fight against economic and financial crime”.

“The recruitment of forensic specialists who will soon be taking up their duties and the tender that will be opened later this year are facts that represent an essential reinforcement so that the PJ can have the human resources it needs to fully carry out its duties,” he said.

Next, the Prime Minister referred to the objectives of technological modernisation at the level of the PJ.

“Technologies are today a weapon of crime, but they are also the weapon to fight crime. It is essential to invest in these resources, which is why, under the Recovery and Resilience Programme there are €21 million dedicated specifically to invest in the communication and information technologies of the PJ, along with investment in the criminal investigation laboratory,” he specified.