PAN proposes special parliamentary commission to oversee ‘secret’

PAN is proposing the creation of a special parliamentary commission to oversee the Information Service of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP) and prevent former prime ministers and ministers from entering the Supervisory Board.

Under the bill published on Tuesday, the PAN wants “owners of sovereign bodies, autonomous regions or local governments” and “persons who in the previous five years have served on a special body of the SIRP” or “served as prime ministers, ministers of the president, national defense, home affairs, justice, foreign affairs or finance, or even those who were members of the High Council of Information.”

The sole MP of the People-Animais-Natureza also wants that “during the performance of duties on the Supervisory Board of the SIRP, its members could not perform any functions in the bodies of parties, political associations or foundations associated with them, nor carry out political party activities of a public nature, and that the status of a member of a political party (if any) is suspended for the duration of the term of office.”

Inés Souza Real also proposes to strengthen the authority to verify the “secret” by the Assembly of the Republic through the “creation of a special parliamentary commission and special control of the SIRP and its activities.”

This committee will be composed of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, a deputy from each party with parliamentary representation, as well as the chairmen of the parliamentary committees on constitutional matters, rights, freedoms and guarantees, defense and foreign affairs.

This commission will “evaluate the reports on the activities of each of the information services as well as the budget proposals” of the SIRP, “facilitate such hearings and investigations as it deems necessary”, issue an opinion in each legislative session on the work of this body, and, nevertheless, “to check the compliance of internal regulations and regulations with operational safety regulations, and to assess possible standard deviations against regulations and international best practices.”

The PAN proposal also proposes to send to this commission “a complete list of current processes”, “criteria of government guidance aimed at examining the information” and provides for the possibility of “conducting inspection visits with or without prior notice.”

Inés de Souza Real also wants the SIRP General Secretary to be removed from office by a decision approved by a two-thirds majority of the deputies of the Assembly of the Republic, and that the SIRP Supervisory Board, by law, have “a minimum representation of 40% of each gender.”

In the reasoning part, a single PAN member refers to the fact that situations like the one that happened recently with the involvement of the SIS in the seizure of a computer from the Ministry of Infrastructure “caused the need to strengthen the powers of parliamentary oversight of the SIRP and the independence of the Supervisory Board of the SIRP.”

Inés de Souza Real argues that these changes, if approved, will “significantly strengthen the guarantees of the independence of the members of the SIRP Supervisory Board, freeing them from any restrictions of a political or professional nature and preventing the logic of“ revolving doors ”. “between the political power and the supervisory board, as well as between the supervisory body and the supervised entity.”