The saga of the directors of Caixa Geral de Depósitos who refused to hand in their income and asset statements, as is normal for those running publically owned companies, is nearly over as the Constitutional Court today concluded that ‘the rules are the rules.’
António Domingues , the former chairman of Caixa Geral, who resigned over this issue along with other directors, will now be notified that the must declare his income and assets, even though he no longer works at the struggling State-owned bank.
The judges gathered today and now expect the directors’ paperwork to be delivered without delay.
Portugal’s President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, played a firm and decisive role in demanding that Domingues and his belligerent fellow directors declared their income and assets.
Domingues claimed that he had agreed with the Ministry of Finance that he did not have to submit his details and that this exemption had been an essential part of his decision to join the bank.
The Minister of Finance started off by saying there was no problem in Domingues not submitting his statements as the bank was going to be refinanced and would not then be 100% State owned.
When this matter hit the headlines, the Finance Minister, Mário Centeno, dropped Domingues in it by denying all knowledge of any such agreement.
The President of the Republic wrote that these directors were obliged to present their declarations, and asked the Constitutional Court formally to notify them.
The Court judges did not rush at the task but now have agreed that the President was right and that Domingues and the other Caixa Geral directors, whether still at the bank or resigned, are legally obliged to declare their income and assets for the start and end dates of their brief employ.
The reason for these declarations is so that independent observers can see whether directors have enriched themselves above their salaries, i.e. whether they have been on the take.
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