After the cases of possible incompatibilities discovered among the Ministers of Health, Territorial Cohesion and Infrastructure, this time it is the name of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, who is in doubt.
According to the SICthe minister must not have ceased his activities in a business related to research and the association of the minister’s spouse has received support from a foundation precisely supervised by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The minister, who is also a scientist, was honored last year for a series of discoveries developed as a researcher at NOVA University and through NPTE, a research, development and commercialization company of electronic paper transistors and biosensors that is 16% in owned by Elvira Fortunato herself.
The ministry explained to SIC that the official left the company on March 18, almost two weeks before taking office as minister, but the Portal of Justice is not communicating about the cessation of activities. The latest record is even a capital increase, in May, where it increased by a thousand euros.
More recently, on July 27, the Foundation of Science and Technology, under the supervision of Elvira Fortunato, donated 56,725 euros to a project of AlmaScience, an association led by her husband, indicates that the Saturday. About this case, the ministry said: SIC that tenders are assessed by international experts without government intervention.
In recent weeks, the Ministers of Health, Manuel Pizarro, of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, and of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, and other members of the executive, have been the subject of doubts about the possibility of overcoming the regime of incompatibilities. have violated .in force applicable to holders of public office.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, António Costa, assured that he has no doubts about the “fairness” of the way the members of the government carry out their functions and said that the executive does not interfere in the dialogues between the President and the Assembly of the Republic.
That same day, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa asked parliament, as he announced Tuesday, to review the legal regime for incompatibilities and impediments of political office holders, if the Assembly of the Republic “deems such reflection relevant and necessary”.
“In fact, the complex legal tangle in Portuguese society has caused great controversy, in a vital matter for citizens’ trust in the institutions, resulting from a constitutional imposition, doubts even expressed by the advisory council of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic,” reads a note published this Thursday on the website of the Presidency of the Republic.
Source: DN
