“Some of the members, few are questioning the prestige of the representative democracy”. The president of the Portuguese Parliament, the socialist Ferro Rodrigues, made this statement before the subsequent journalistic investigations over the false presences of the deputies, the travel charge but does not make or support due to living away from Parliament when they live a few meters away.
the case of The deputy Silvano, which was at the time in the Parliament and outside it, has not been the only one. If first the weekly Expresso reported his case, the digital newspaper Observer spread the scandal to three other members who also had the gift of ubiquity. The four members of parliament concerned belong to the Social Democratic Party (centre-right) and they did not look at the Camera, but accessed on their computers to their accounts, despite the fact that to do so is required to use a personal password and exclusive given by the presidency of the Parliament. “It seems essential to distinguish the simple connections to the computer system of the registration of presences,” said Ferro in this regard.
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Silvano, the deputy Portuguese that is in two places at the same time The leader of the Bloco that is lined with the speculation of the brick
“it Is unquestionable” that there are irregularities, has been recognized by the president after an emergency meeting held this Wednesday, with the leaders of the various parliamentary groups. All the groups agreed on a remedy, but differ in the method. The majority rejects the biometric control, the only means infallible in order to avoid votes of people away. The key to personal and non-transferable because it has been shown that it is not worth for nothing. The solution of the groups by adding a further step to the identification, the personal card, though this can also be provided. In any case, the irregularities earlier go unpunished. For the spokesman of the group of the PSD, Fernando Negrão, what is the fundamental “awareness” of the offenders.
“it Is essential to distinguish between the simple turning on the computer —that each Savoybetting deputy is in his seat— and the record of the presence of the deputy,” said Ferro Rodrigues, who refuses to be the police of the 230 deputies, but requires each member and to the leaders of each group more “responsibility”.
But in the case of the mps-ghost is not the only case in which deputies Portuguese have been involved in irregularities. The annual report of the Court of Accounts (TC) affects the Assembly of the Republic, the lack of control of expenditure and payments. Last year, the House paid, without proof, three million euros for various expenses to the deputies. Some journalistic investigations have shown abuse several. In addition, the TC also draws attention about the lack of updating of the information of their lordships, especially in regard to their residences.
The former secretary-general of the PSD, Feliciano Barreiras Duarte, said to live outside of Lisbon to charge you for the costs of relocation, although in fact he lived a few meters from the camera. The same is the case of a half-dozen deputies, but all are welcome to the legal argument of the weekend is usually to go to the village, according to a research of RTP.
Most egregious is the case of travel charged two times. Deputies islanders (Azores and Madeira) have the right to 500 euros, and seven of them, however, were the expenses to the Camera, which I reembolsaba quantities. In this case, the parliamentarians belonged to the PSD, PS (centre-left) and Bloco (left). Among them was the spokesman and president of the PS, which considered that the procedure “legally and ethically” was “absolutely correct”.
Not view the same the deputy of the Bloco de Esquerda Paulino Ascenção, who resigned for the same thing and returned the money to non-profit associations. Something similar is promised to the member of the PSD Sara Madruga.
