Top Social Democrat resigns over CV and travel expenses fiddle

Secretary-General of the Social Democratic Party has resigned just a month into the job

 

Feliciano Barreiras Duarte today presented his resignation to the party's president, Rui Rio.

 

Duarte has been under pressure for over a week after his CV referred to his position as Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, which was false. The Attorney General's Office ordered an investigation.

 

This weekend, Duarte was back in the papers after the Observer discovered that the MP has been fiddling his travel expenses for ten years by claiming his parent’s address outside of the capital in Bomparral was his own, when in fact he lived in Lisbon.

 

Between 1999 and 2009 Barreiras Duarte received travel expenses as if he was living in Bombarral, claiming that as this is his fiscal address it’s the one he should use.

 

"As the fiscal address is the only one relevant to any administrative and fiscal matter, including the right to vote, I understood that this was of course the address that should be placed on the register of the Assembly of the Republic," came the feeble explanation from the politician.

 

The Social Democratic Party hierarchy was having none of it. In an interview with Antena 1 on Saturday, one of the party's vice presidents, Manuel Castro Almeida, noted the general discomfort with the case.

 

"It is good that he considers whether or not he has the conditions" to continue in office, said the leader, stressing that the controversy surrounding Duarte has been dragging on "for some time."