The chairman of the Council for the Prevention of Corruption, Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, gave a lecture to schoolchildren in Severim de Faria in Évora this week and concluded that little progress has been made in combating this ‘terrible phenomenon.’
Claiming there is a need for ‘simple and clear laws,’ Martins complained that the current legal system is too complex and actually encourages corruption and that criminal investigators must have available the tools required to take offenders to court and actually get convictions.
Stressing that corruption starts at the grass roots level in society Martins warned that corruption is not something reserved for those in high places but that is seeps into many areas of everyday life and that education was the key to changing Portugal from a nation renowned for its multi-levels of favouritism, cronyism and corruption.
At the national level, there is still 'much to do' in terms of preventing corruption but Martins added that there has been recent examples of impressive action in this area by prosecutors, referring to cases including Golden Visa, BES, PT, Ferrostaal, NHS fraud and former PM Sócrates.
