The Court of Auditors has reported a disastrous "lack of control" at Caixa Geral de Depósitos between 2013 and 2015 when Maria Luís de Albuquerque was Finance Minister in the Passos Coelho coalition government.
The audit report shows that the government approved documents without having complete information and that such control as existed, lacked transparency.
The former minister said she was "surprised" by the conclusions of the report - but there is no need to be unless her memory is at fault.
The institution's report concluded that shareholders were kept in the dark and that Caixa Geral’s accounts were approved by government despite large amounts of missing information.
The Court of Auditors also notes the existence of impairments of €1.5 billion and an exposure to risky loans in the order of €4.5 billion, yet despite the "weaknesses of control identified" the Court points out that no financial inspection was requested by the government.
The Ministry of Finance, now under Mário Centeno who has been weakened by his botched succession plans for Caixa Geral, says that it now is "firmly committed" to increasing control over State-owned businesses such as Caixa Geral.
The Socialist Party spokesman, João Galamba, today challenged Padero Passos Coelho to clarify statements made by Maria Luís Albuquerque concerning Caixa Geral which Galamba considers contradictory.
According to the Socialist MP, Albuquerque said there was sufficient market supervision over Caixa Geral, meaning she did not have to worry about the bank despite her knowing it was hugely indebted and in need of urgent attention.
Maria Luís Albuquerque, when confronted with the scathing Court of Auditors' report, emphasised that Caixa Geral was subject to scrutiny by several entities, namely the Bank of Portugal, the European Central Bank, the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the General Directorate of Competition.
Galamba continued his attack, stating "Pedro Passos Coelho should explain Maria Luís Albuquerque's statements and the behavior of his Government between 2013 and 2015. The neglect of the financial sector during the previous government had had costs. To recapitalise Banif with €1.1 billion and Caixa Geral with €1.65 billion, without any adequate monitoring of the money invested, had costs. If there is someone who owes an explanation to the country, it is Passos Coelho and the Social Democratic Party.”
Passos Coelho rejected the assertion that there had been any lack of transparency in the government's control ovf Caixa Geral during his government and added that there had been an audit at a level beyond that required.
Passos Coelho and Maria Luís Albuquerque both knew that Caixa Geral was cess-pit of bad debt and corruption. They determined to delay dealing with the problem so that the Caixa Geral cover up remained in place until the new Socialist Government took over and were bound to discover the hideous truth and the need for a €4.5 to €5 billion refinancing to be stumped up, as ever, by the taxpayer.
The Court of Auditors’ report shows this is exactly what happened and the former Finance Minister’s weak attempts at bluffing this one out, are just that.
Comments
I believe there is but one shareholder, Mr taxpayer. I should have written 'stakeholders' as this would have included depositors.
And I think of the supervisory bodies shown here (Bank of Portugal, the European Central Bank, the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the General Directorate of Competition) only one is Portuguese. And we already know that the Bank of Portugal is severely dysfunctional. How many more skeletons are there in the Portuguese cupboard which the Bank of Portugal has not yet found?