The 2022 financial statements by the Presidency of the Republic (PR) of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa were “adequate” and the authorship of the Court of Auditors (TdC) on last year’s exercise results in a “favourable” opinion, the collective says of judges overseeing the use of money and public property.
A side note, however: the inventory of the collection of works of art, furniture and other valuable cultural objects remains disorganized, in the sense that these inventories remain fragmented. Therefore, the Court requests the “aggregation” of the lists of goods, some of which are of great value, into a “single inventory”. The idea is to gain more control over the collection.
In the opinion released this Thursday, “the TdC expressed a favorable opinion, based on the financial audit performed, as the financial and budget statements represent in a fair and appropriate manner, in all material aspects, the financial position of PR, at 31 December 2022, the financial results, budget execution and cash flows for the year ended on that date, in accordance with the principles set out in the Accounting System for Public Administrations”.
The Court under the chairmanship of José Tavares “concluded that the accountability documentation had been presented in an adequate and compliant manner” and that “the processing of fees had been adapted to the current legal framework, with a specific fee parameterized for specific situations with differentiated fees”.
As a general rule, the Court considered the expenditure budgeting procedure, the publication of contracts on the base.gov portal and the administrative control that precludes the signing of contracts by direct award and prior consultation of the general regime as “appropriate “. an amount above the legally permitted amount”.
But there are problems that the Court does not overlook. One of the main problems remains in the universe of cultural heritage (goods such as works of art, furniture, etc.) held by the Presidency of the Republic and the Museum of the Presidency.
“In the context of assets of a cultural nature, the assets of the PR and the museum have yet to be merged into a single inventory, which for the time being gives priority to the registration of the files of cultural assets,” the judges of the TdC warn.
This is an area of the presidential sphere that has seen serious attacks and problems in recent years, culminating in the six-and-a-half-year prison sentence of Diogo Gaspar, former director of the Museum of the Presidency.
For example, according to the prosecution’s accusation, Gaspar listed furniture items from the Palace of the Citadel of Cascais, where much of the presidency’s estate is kept, after classifying nearly two hundred pieces “as alienable, in order to be slaughtered, citing the state of degradation or lack of value”.
Once the parts were thrown out, Gaspar is said to have set up companies he controlled that later bought PR goods at a low price. According to the prosecution, Diogo Gaspar was able to “acquire 178 pieces of furniture for himself, for less than market value,” through this plan.
Luís Reis Ribeiro is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
