In 2018, PS, PSD, BE, PCP and CDS had employees paid by parliament who did not provide service to the party in parliament. In September of that year, the Saturday wrote about the “advisors of the parties that parliament pays”, which showed that “they are paid by the Assembly of the Republic to advise parliamentary groups, but in many cases they work at the national or district headquarters of the parties and although their nominations are published in the Diário da República, it is not public how much they earn nor are they subject to rules and regulations other than those imposed on them by the respective parliamentary groups”.

At that time, in 2018, the justification for these recruitments was common to all parties: “sharing resources”, “lack of physical conditions in parliament”, “the facilities available in the Assembly of the Republic are insufficient”. And the PSD? Refused to answer.

And now? The Liberal Initiative ensures that it has no party officials who are paid with money from parliament: “IL has great respect for taxpayers’ moneyLivre gave a similar answer:I’m not afraids”; the PAN says that “all appointed PAN advisors paid by the AR work for the AR agency only”.

These are the “no” answers. The following are for nin and sim. In the case of Chega, the party warrants that “all employees paid by the AR work for the party’s parliamentary activitywithout explaining whether they are employees who work exclusively in the Assembly of the Republic.

In turn, as in 2018, the BE explains that “the parliamentary activity of the Bloc’s deputies is supported by advisers in the Assembly of the Republic, who oversee the legislative production and the work of the parliamentary committees. It is also accompanied by parliamentary assistants who, working remotely, as the law expressly provides, guarantee the support and expression of the bloc’s parliamentary activity throughout the territory.: identify problems, provide technical and administrative support, participate in the preparation of questions to the government on local and regional issues, supervise and organize visits, draft legislative proposals and promote debate on them. This is fundamental for the exercise of the mandate of the deputies of the Bloc, which, guided by the proximity of the realities of the different regions, is not limited to the space of the Assembly of the Republic”.

The PCP understands that “by law, parliamentary groups have an amount in proportion to their size, entered in the budget of the Assembly of the Republic, intended for the hiring of staff support, in the various fields and valencies necessary for parliamentary work, whether specific work in the Assembly of the Republic, or to study regional and sectoral realities and to liaise with voters in the various constituencies, workers and the population”.

That is to say “yes” because “the available facilities in the Assembly of the Republic are inadequate, making it necessary to use the party’s spaces for its work, which entails expenses for facilities, equipment, namely IT, and the energy they contain and which are supported by the party”.

But there is, they say, one certainty: “It is not the resources allocated by the Assembly of the Republic to the parliamentary group of the PCP that support the general activity of the partyare the results of the party’s general activity that contribute to the action of the parliamentary group.”

Neither the PS nor the PSD responded to DN’s requests for clarification.

Party financing?

Nuno Cunha Rolo, president of the Civic Association Transparency and Integrity, who asked the board of directors of the Assembly of the Republic for an explanation as early as 2020, he has no doubt that this is “an illegality” and that “there is clearly double party funding here”.

“It’s illegal. It is not written into law [a Lei de Organização e Funcionamento dos Serviços da Assembleia da República] that party officials are paid by parliament. The law is very clear: it is to work in parliament, it is not to work in parties. The Member of Parliament therefore speaks of embezzlement and abuse of power. The political parties are already receiving the government subsidy provided for by law, according to the election results. But it seems that there is now a new funding source, namely Parliament. But Parliament is there to fund parliamentary work, not to fund parties, party workhe says.

And what reaction did you get in 2020? “The Secretary-General of the Assembly of the Republic replied when the Board of Directors should have done it. And it was a short two-paragraph reply in which Article 46 and paragraphs 2, 5 and 6 of the Organization and Operation of the Services Act of the Assembly of the Republic. Basically the answer was this: “We have nothing to do with this, because this is the responsibility of the parliamentary groups. They nominate people and we pay”.

Transparency and Integrity had requested data on the total number of support staff for parliamentary groups, single and non-registered deputies, how many of them fulfill functions outside parliament, for example seconded to party headquarters, and what control mechanisms the Assembly of the Republic has over the workplace of the employee, as well as information regarding these possible working conditions.

“For too many years Parliament has lived in silence with suspicions and allegations that officials who are paid to support the work of the Assembly end up being diverted by parties to do strictly party work, at their headquarters, with no connection whatsoever to the functions of the parliament”, emphasizes Nuno Cunha Rolo.

The Rui Rio Inquiry

The case that led to yesterday’s house searches began to be investigated following the “fictitious jobs” controversy – an open letter to Rio shared by Whatsapp in PSD.

Rui Rio was preparing cuts that would hit party officials in parliament and at headquarters, but there was criticism, quoted by Saturday, of “fictitious jobs in the PSD faction, chaired by the same Rui Rio who intends to reform the political system”.

Translation: personnel assigned to the PSD parliamentary group, but located at the PSD national headquarters or even in district offices – as was the case with the district office in Porto, which was also the target of searches.

In other words: the presumption that it was through this “distraction” of workers, and at the cost of the Republic Assembly budget – transferring party costs to Parliament, that the PSD was able to reduce some of its liabilities.

Since the president of the Civic Transparency and Integrity Association “does not oversee” the board, and as the MP seems to have verified, it would be “possible to reduce the costs of the party with the salaries” of at least ten “employees”.

During the operation, the PJ mobilized about 100 inspectors and experts to search the home of the former PSD president and the party’s national headquarters, alleging embezzlement and abuse of power.

Former PSD leader Rui Rio, Hugo Carneiro, deputy general secretary, and 12 associates and former advisers were seized, namely mobile phones and computer hard drives.

“At issue is the investigation into the use of funds of a public nature, in a political-partisan context, with suspicions of the possible commission of crimes of embezzlement and abuse of power (crimes for which political office holders are responsible), facts of which relevant reports on the beginning of the action until 2018 [ e até 2021]said the PJ.

The former PSD leader understands that the purpose of the house searches he was targeted was to tarnish his image. payments in question “are not illegal” and common to all parties, that this form of payment to party officials through parliament “is a practice in the Assembly and among all parties”.

“The payments are not illegal, these are all parties, why [foi] the psd? If anything happened in my time, it was a reform in the sense of moralizing all this as much as possible, which is not that it was wrong, but moralizing, making it right,” he said.

And then almost left a threat: “I’m out of politics, I don’t plan on going back into politics, I’ve had enough of politics, but sometimes… I had a friend who Dr. it works well it’s stabbed’. I’m so calm Why are they coming to poke me?”.

Hugo Carneiro, another target, deputy and former assistant secretary general of the PSD, did not respond clearly to the suspicions raised, preferring to say that “there are many things that will be included in the process that I don’t know, over time it will develop and no matter what is asked of me I will not fail to answer”.

Augusto Santos e Silva, President of the Assembly of the Republic, came forward in defense of the presumption of innocence, arguing that “the fact that an investigation is being launched does not mean that there is even guilt. And after the formation of guilt and the accusation comes a judgment and only at the end, when the verdict results in the investigation of wrongful facts and the liability of those responsible, can we talk about any blemishes, blemishes, cases or whatever..

The statement caused astonishment to Nuno Cunha Rolo, president of the Civic Association Transparency and Integrity: “It is very convenient to confuse justice with the criminal issue. Because if it’s not a crime, no one has anything to do with it. It’s unreal. But did you or did you not know about this practice? And if you knew it, do you think it’s right? I can’t believe I didn’t know about this after so many years in parliament”.