The PS this Thursday “categorically” rejected having received financial or material support from companies, insisting that the donations collected by this party are registered, identified and presented to the Entity of bills and political funding.
This position was announced by the Socialists’ leadership in a communiqué, “in view of news made public in the media”.
On Wednesday night, TVI/CNN Portugal reported that the judicial police on Tuesday carried out searches of the Lisbon City Council for “suspicions of corruption, economic participation in business and counterfeiting” in a “service agreement signed in 2015” by the then president of the municipality, Fernando Medina, the current finance minister, suspects PS funding.
Given the news made public in the media, the Socialist Party clarifies that it has not received any financial or material support from companies.
By law, only donations from duly identified persons are accepted.– psocialista (@psocialista) January 19, 2023
“The PS clarifies that it has not received any financial or material support from companies. Under the law, only donations from duly identified individuals are accepted,” the PS statement emphasizes.
The PS then refers that “the donations made are recorded and identified in the party’s official accounts, presented to the entity for billing and political funding”.
“The PS categorically rejects the allegations of funding outside the strict legal framework,” it added.
PS in the Lisbon Chamber says to be “sure of the legality” of contracts under scrutiny
The PS in Lisbon City Council today said it was “totally calm and sure of the legality of all contracts” signed in previous mandates under socialist rule, following recent searches of the Urban Planning Department on suspicion of corruption.
“PS Lisboa is completely calm and sure of the legality of all contracts and procedures,” the socialists said in a written response to the Lusa bureau, pointing out that the searches carried out on Tuesday at the municipal Urbanism department will be related to ” signed contracts in 2015 and 2016, the news of which has been public since 2018″, as part of an investigation by the newspaper Public.
The donations made are recorded and identified in the party’s official accounts, presented to the political accounts and funding entity.
The PS categorically rejects the allegations of financing outside the strict legal framework.– psocialista (@psocialista) January 19, 2023
Público recalls in today’s edition that, as the newspaper reported in 2018, the contracting, between 2015, of consultancy services for the “history” of PS Joaquim Morão, former mayor in Idanha-a-Nova and Castelo Branco, for technical support in the management of municipal projects and works.
The Chamber of Lisbon confirmed on Wednesday that searches were carried out in the Urban Planning Department, but sent further clarifications to the judicial authorities.
“If there is a complaint, it is for the judicial authorities to investigate, as they do, and the CML must cooperate diligently in investigations, as it has always done,” said PS Lisboa in the note sent to Lusa.
The ongoing investigation, he added, will be related to “recruitment procedures, the processing of which is carried out by municipal services, and to which the mayor of the autarchy is a foreigner”.
“Fernando Medina has not taken any action in this context,” he assured.
The PS councilor in Lisbon’s current executive branch, which has four socialists among its 17 elected officials, said that “all works, without exception, were inspected and examined by the Court of Auditors and deserved its approval”.
Lisbon’s current mayor, Carlos Moedas (PSD), today confirmed searches by the PJ on Tuesday at the premises of the municipality, which refer to “past mandates”, and announced that the “anti-corruption department” will be proposed later this month . .
For the Socialists, “Carlos Moedas’s revelation today that he is going to set up an alleged anti-corruption agency, when he had already assigned a portfolio and department with these functions, is a deplorable attempt at political exploitation”.
The PS accused the PSD/CDS-PP leadership, which rules without an absolute majority, of talking “a lot” about transparency and the fight against corruption, when the councilor responsible for that area, Joana Almeida (independently elected by the “Novos Tempos “) ” coalition – PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança), which also has the Urbanism portfolio, “was the same one who had the ‘honor’ to present a week ago the proposal for the licensing of a hotel owned by a front company by Isabel dos Santos”.
“If it is with this zeal that the portfolio and the department will work, now disguised as a cabinet, it is clear that it is only a cosmetic operation,” the council criticized, referring to the proposal to create a municipal department of transparency and to create a fight against corruption.
For its part, BE’s only council member, Beatriz Gomes Dias, asked that “everything be investigated and responsibilities established” in the context of the investigation.
Lusa questioned the other political forces that make up the municipal council, namely the PCP (two elected), Cidadãos Por Lisboa (two councillors, elected by the PS/Livre coalition) and Livre (one elected), still awaiting a commentary.
According to TVI/CNN Portugal, it concerns “the violation of the rules for hiring a PS historian in Castelo Branco for the purpose of managing public works in the capital”.
“The Public Prosecution Service believes that the purpose of the scheme was to raise money for public works, with bribes from contractors, for the illegal financing of the PS, through the so-called blue bags,” TVI said.
Also according to the television station, the searches next to the municipality involved companies belonging to two businessmen from Castelo Branco, suspected of participating in the fundraising campaign.
“The targets, on suspicion of corruption, are Joaquim Morão, a former socialist and former mayor of Castelo Branco and Idanha-a-Nova, and his friend António Realinho, a businessman from the same part of the country, who even served a prison sentence for fraud,” he said.
Lusa has contacted the Treasury Department and the PJ for further clarification on the matter, but so far it has not been possible to get a response.
Speaking to TVI, Fernando Medina said he was not aware of any investigation, adding only that “the recruitment procedures of the Lisbon City Council were instructed by the competent services for recruitment, in accordance with the applicable rules” .
Montenegro sends explanations to the PS about house searches in the Chamber of Lisbon
The president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, had this Thursday sent an explanation to the Socialist Party (PS) about the searches carried out by the judicial police in the Lisbon chamber on Tuesday.
“At the moment it is the Socialist Party that has to answer the questions raised in these processes, it is the previous mayors, because the facts, as far as I could understand from the news that was published, relate to previous mandates.said Luís Montenegro today, on the sidelines of a visit to Cova beach, in Figueira da Foz, Coimbra district.
“It is up to the Socialist Party and the previous mayors of Lisbon that the matter should be addressed and questioned at this time,” he reaffirmed.
The PSD leader also said he regretted that there were “so many doubts about the legality and compliance of procedures in so many public institutions, namely in so many local authorities”.
“But on the other side [lado]It is also a sign that the rule of law works and justice works. And what I am happy to say at the moment is that the investigations are being pushed to the limit and responsibilities are being determined when there is room for it,” Luís Montenegro argued.
Lisbon City Council confirmed on Wednesday that searches were being carried out at the municipality’s Urban Planning Department, but sent further clarifications to judicial authorities.
“Any clarification must be provided by the judicial authorities,” an official source from the Lisbon City Council told Lusa, confirming only the searches in the Urbanism department.
Still on the sidelines of his visit today to Praia da Cova, an area in the municipality of Figueira da Foz heavily affected by coastal erosion, Luís Montenegro, accompanied by the mayor Pedro Santana Lopes, reiterated that the current environment and “the climate of suspicion “of mayors and rulers “is not positive for political activity, it is not positive for those who render honest services on behalf of the people, who make up the majority of political agents”.
“From that point of view, it is not worth ignoring that the effect on citizens’ confidence is not positive,” the Social Democratic leader warned.
“But there is also a side that we must respect: it is that the institutions of the rule of law work and that citizens must also feel that side and that side that those who break the law will suffer the consequences. But the issue ignoring is of course not the right way to go,” he stressed.
On that occasion, Luís Montenegro spoke again on the subject of the questionnaire for future leaders, accusing Prime Minister António Costa of “underestimating” the call made by himself and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, for the current members of the government to be involved in this “monitoring process”.
“It is with great surprise, with great surprise, that I see the Prime Minister say that it is not necessary to do this to the current members of the government, to respond to the questionnaire that he himself has prepared, because the statements of the members currently in office have already been made,” said the leader of the PSD.
“This shows the disorientation, confusion, almost playfulness with which the prime minister faces the situation,” he added.
On TAP, the case of former administrator Alexandra Reis and Wednesday’s parliamentary hearing of the airline’s executive administrator Luís Montenegro, it was said there were “many hours of hearings, but very few certainties about what was important to know “.
“And what was important to know was what exactly was decided, on what basis and with what knowledge. And this remains a cloud that unfortunately does not disappear,” he complained.
Source: DN
