Portugal’s Finance Minister, Mário Centeno, fears an "irreversible breach of trust" if details of dodgy loans made by Caixa Geral de Depósitos are released. Centeno also wants details of Caixa Geral's 2012 recapitalisation kept well away from scrutiny, even by MPs.
Both financial regulators - the Bank of Portugal and the stock exchange regulatory body, CMVM, - also fear the release of certain documents that could reveal what really went on at the State-owned bank. Their concern is that there will be such an uproar that the further recapitalisation planned may be seen as throwing good money after bad, and is scrapped.
Centeno is so worried that his recapitalisation plan of around €4 billion will be derailed if the truth comes out, that the Ministry of Finance is spending more public funds in appealing to the Supreme Court to keep Caixa's dirty washing well hidden from scrutiny.
"Disclosure can have systemic consequences that are difficult to determine," according the Minister, whose idea of 'transparency' differs from the norm.
The Committee of Inquiry is due to report its findings soon, but to whom? Portugal's MPs expect the full horror of Caixa Geral’s past management to be laid bare but those in charge want no such thing, using a range of increasingly desperate excuses to block full disclosure, including ‘commercial confidentiality.’
The 2012 recapitalisation of Caixa Geral de Depósitos cost the taxpayer €1.65 billion for no discernible effect on the bank’s performance.
A Lisbon Court ruled that these loan records should be released to the Committee of Inquiry, but the legal appeal by the Bank of Portugal, CMVM and Caixa Geral itself means that it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide whether MPs can see the data which already has cost the taxpayer dearly.
Other documents and reports that MPs can not be trusted with include quarterly audit committee reports from the end of 2012 until September 2016, and comments recorded at the time from the General Inspectorate of Finance which also is keeping quiet.
Another excuse being used to keep everything secret is that, in addition to the purported worry about trust, "the disclosure of the documentation would make data relating to business secrets available to competitors which could distort competition to the detriment Caixa Geral," according to the latest wafer-thin excuse being trotted out by the Finance Ministry's lawyers.
According to the Ministry, the documents in question concern "Caixa Geral’s criteria for assessing customers, personal customer data (which can normally only be accessed with the customer’s authorisation) and the criteria used to write off bad loans."
The Committee of Inquiry wants the list of major creditors, the criteria used to grant them loans, and to write them off as many have never been paid back, but the Ministry of Finance reckons the Committee of Inquiry already has had enough information to provide “a picture of the situation under investigation."
Many sense a cover-up in action in this struggle between the right of the public to know what its money has been used for, and the duty that the State has to keep certain things confidential.
