European report shows skepticism in Portugal’s fight against corruption

The GRECO group’s report on corruption, published this Wednesday, “demonstrates the skepticism of international experts” towards Portugal’s “old habit” of “adopting many laws and implementing few or none at all”, said the vice-president of the Frente Cívica association.

“This report shows that external assessors are highly skeptical of a country that spends its life making laws and then fails to implement the laws it makes. In this case, we are talking about laws to prevent corruption at the government level, which depend on institutions. that don’t work,” said Civil Front vice-president João Paulo Batalha.

In particular, the report of the 5th assessment round of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe indicates that the legislation is based on institutions that are not yet fully operational, such as the National Anti-Corruption Service. – The Mechanism against Corruption (MENAC) and the Organization for Transparency, which, according to João Paulo Batalha, play “a fundamental role in monitoring the integrity of public officials.”

According to João Paulo Batalha, this report “shows that this anti-corruption framework is based on laws that, when they are not translated into anything in practice, are a fiction to prevent and combat corruption.”

GRECO of the Council of Europe this Wednesday called on Portugal to improve the effectiveness of the system for preventing corruption in the main executive functions of government and in law enforcement agencies.

GRECO recognizes that Portugal has developed an extensive legal and institutional system to combat corruption, but the effectiveness of this system largely depends on the full functioning of MENAC and the Transparency Framework, which has not yet happened.

The report emphasizes that all people in senior leadership positions should be subject to effective integrity checks before joining government, as well as subject to post-employment restrictions and be required to file declarations of assets and interests.

Another issue that GRECO is concerned about is the transparency of contacts between senior officials, lobbyists and third parties, which the Council of Europe body believes deserves further progress.

On this occasion, João Paulo Batalha stated that GRECO “recognizes that this is a completely nebulous area in which the influence on public decisions and legislation is exercised without control and therefore without the possibility of control”, which is “a big gap that needs to be corrected” .

The official lamented that the Portuguese parliament “initiated a last-minute legislative process” on lobbying, which “does not require much celebration” due to the lack of public discussion, which has already happened before and “with great success.” the result is always insufficient or bad.”

Although João Paulo Batalha does not believe that the law under discussion will still be approved in this legislative body, he points out, however, “a very large gap, due to which lawyers, who are major lobbyists in Portugal, are not taken into account “

He said the legislation under discussion initially prohibits lawyers from lobbying, but does not prohibit them from meeting with political decision makers as part of their own activities, which is not controlled and which in practice allows lawyers to continue lobbying. , “but without respect for the rules of transparency, minutes of meetings and controlled processes that are the hallmark of the regulation that is planned to be introduced.”

João Paulo Batalha stressed that the fundamental impetus of the law under discussion is “Operation Influencer”, a process in which Diogo Lacerda Machado, a lawyer and best friend of the Prime Minister, whose defense alleged that he provided legal advice to the company, was accused. who hired him, therefore carry out his activities.

“It is very doubtful that the application of the law under discussion will in any way penalize or even allow us to scrutinize the behavior of Lacerda Machado and the meetings he held,” he said.

“If we pass a law in response to the Operation Influencer case and realize that the law we pass is unlikely to prevent the Operation Influencer case, then we have clearly failed. This is one of the problems that GRECO clearly signals: that we pass laws with little thought, little discussion, haste, poorly drafted, and then the laws are ineffective on the ground, either because they are poorly designed or because they are not are carried out, or for both reasons at the same time,” he added.