As calls increase in volume for his resignation, the Prime Minsiter Pedro Passos Coelho tried again today to explain away his failure to pay his social security debts by saying he had been distracted and 'did not have enough money.'
The Prime Minister admits his errors, but said that he never got any special treatment and that he never failed to pay off the amounts owed to the social security department.
The situation has worsened for the PM as, following revelations about his non-payment of just over €5,000 in social security dues and associated fines, he now has been confronted by allegations that taxman had to start five 'coercive collection' processes for a further €6,000 owed from the 'missing years' of 2003 to 2007.
While the Prime Minister settled his social security debts relating to this period at the end of last month, perhaps only as the news had been leaked, there has been a resounding 'no comment' on the tax debt allegations which, if true, will raise his 'schoolboy error' onto a whole new platform.
Passos Coelho said he had not kept payment records for the years in question (2003 to 2007) as the amounts due have been paid, (albeit many years later and without the ususal fines and penalties associated with tardy settlement.)
This is markedly different behaviour to the careful record keeping Passos Coelho claimed in September last year when working for Tecnoforma, "I collaborated with the company Tecnoforma during the years after I was an MP. During all those years of collaboration with that company, I have a record of all the amounts I received and declared." *
The politician's memory clouds over when pushed on the Tecnoforma contract. When asked if he remembered whether he had been paid €5,000 a month by Tecnoforma between 1995 and 1999, while he was deputy leader, Passos Coelho said it was difficult to remember "income processes" which he had received "19, 17, or 16 years ago."
The head of the Socialst Party now claims that the PM has "used and abused his political immunity" and awaits with interest the Prime Minister's clarification on the subject of his social security debts, also now his tax debts.
Carlos Costa’s questions remain unanswered and he reiterated that he expects answers and a full explanation to parliament.
The Government, through Defence Minister, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, responded by alleging that Carlos Coats is simply using the case to try and highlight non-existent divisions in the Passos Coelho government.
In Aguiar-Branco’s opinion, the statements of the socialist leader, "aim to divert attention from the positive signs in the Portuguese economy, the work that this government done in last three years in terms of growth, the reduction of unemployment, and the affirmation of a credible country with lower interest rates."
Speaking to reporters after a meeting in Loulé, Aguiar-Branco said that the Portuguese know how to distinguish what is important and what is irrelevant. This was a dangerous tack as the Minister is right, but may not get the answer from the public that he blithely expects.
José Pedro Aguiar-Branco was in the Algarve to participate in a conference on "Economic Defense: A Strategic Opportunity for Portugal" and ended the day with a visit Sopromar in Lagos.
Passos Coelho would have been aware of the potential for disaster should any of his personal taxation and social security issues become public, when making a speech to his party last year in which he foolishly said,
"“There are many who should pay their taxes but don’t, why? It is because they fail to declare work they have been paid for. We have a duty to correct these injustices. There is nothing more 'socially democratic' than this - equality is what guides us. Nobody should receive any privileges. If a citizen ducks his obligations to society, by a little or by a lot, this person becomes a liability for all the others who then carry a heavier burden.”
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* Tecnoforma.
In 2012 Euro MP Ana Gomes reported a case of alleged fraudulent use of EU funds, in addition to mismanagement and influence peddling with regards to those funds.
The Portuguese media had exposed Tecnoforma and the organisation CPPC, in which Pedro Passos Coelho and former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Miguel Relvas as both being used in a cozy and illegal scam.
Tecnoforma was involved in a EU funded scheme to train municipality officers for airport security in places where airport facilities never operated nor were there plans to authorise them to operate.
Passos Coelho, at the time was a consultant to and a manager of Tecnoforma, attracted much business to the company which was exclusively funded by the European Social Fund, and which was being run at the time by his old chum, the crook Miguel Relvas, then Secretary of State for the Local Administration, and a member of the same political party.
During the time that Relvas administered the Fund, Tecnoforma acquired 63% of all projects funded by the programme in the centre of Portugal for airport security staff for non-existent airports, and earned 76% of the total amount attributed to all private companies.
CPPC was linked to Tecnoforma, operated in its offices and was supposed to implement cooperative projects in African countries, however the projects it carried out which were funded by the European Social fund never actually materialised outside Portuguese territory and all favoured Tecnoforma's business interests.
These two politicians still have powerful government positions. Passos Coelho as Prime Minister and Miguel Relvas as head of the National Council of the PSD having had to resign his Ministerial position due to blatant lies over his gaining a University degree having done no associated work.
For as long as illicit enrichment remains skillfully absent from the Portuguese legal system, these sorts of scams will continue and as the Troika lenders did not include a single condition for Portugal to stop its ingrained habit of her politicians stealing money for themselves, these sorts of episodes will continue, and indeed are continuing currently.
