Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz said today that provisional figures point to an “across-the-board 6% reduction of backlogs in Portugal’s courts, over 2014."
Teixeira da Cruz, said that Portugal had undergone an exhaustive list of structural reforms initiated by the Government, especially those covering the reorganisation of the courts.
"The justice system is now simpler, more agile, more efficient and more equitable," said Teixeira da Cruz at the opening ceremony of the judicial year in Lisbon.
On behalf of the Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and in the knowledge that she is stepping down from her post, the minister justified the measures taken over the last four years by saying that it is important that the state is accountable to its citizens with "full transparency."
The minister quoted from data from the Chamber of Solicitors which revealed caseloads had reduced as 70% of debt collection actions have been cancelled when people did not have any identifiable assets to seize.
"The adoption of the new Civil Procedure Code has led to the simplification of procedures to make them quicker, the cancellation of debt collection cases and the creation of the pre-executive procedure to ascertain whether a debtor has assets worth seizing," according to the government's offcial line.
Paula Teixeira da Cruz of curse did not mention the failed launch of the new judicial map which revealed the computerised system Citius as so poorly developed that it crashed and was off air for six weeks. Cases simply went missing, courts were unprepared and staff untrained in Citius' operation, the closure of courts leaving many without access to justice and a backlog that was far worse than ever before with the system halted amid recrimination and blame.
The minister's lack of management control and habit of blaming others for failures within her ministry means few will mourn her stepping down from the post.
Her claim of a 6% reduction in the backlog of cases when compared to 2014 looks back at a year during whcih the backlog was at its highest due to the ministry's inability to develop and run the computer programme.
This had a disastrous impact on the smooth running of Portugal's justice system which remains among the slowest in Europe.
Teixeira da Cruz's disingenuous comparisons are, for many, the final insult and her departure from a post in which she too failed on takeoff is welcomed.
Comments
No part of the system - judges, prosecutors, court staff, police, lawyers - showed the slightest willingness to step forward even anonymously and help quantify cases where they knew justice had failed. Where evidence had been tampered with or lost; witnesses testimony 'adjusted' or lost; even intentional errors in procedure such as not telling one side's lawyer when a hearing was taking place. Which 'should' have been spotted at what is laughably called the "cleaning up of loose ends" (saneomento) stage before the hearing.
And this anti-corruption enquiry was just to gather statistics - not reopen cases !!!
No wonder 4 out of 5 Portuguese still do not trust their justice system - 40 years after their supposed clean break with the past. And why no foreigner from another EU state should ever willingly step into a Portuguese courthouse. The people running the system are bad - very bad! Like thousands of other foreigners - I know personally.
Not over impressed with this. Do we assume that the 30% are the strangers / foreigners without the specialist help to hide their assets ?
Billionaire Ricardo Salgardo was recently alleged to have transferred his assets to his wife and children. And multi-millionaire Socrates amongst others have likewise transferred their assets to family and friends. So do not have identifiable assets to seize.
If you have the connections it is still being done - daily. And the authorities helpfully look the other way as it is so dishonourable to be looking in a relatives bank account.
Far more useful for the EU would be data on the number of northern EU strangers / foreigners who are pursuing justice in Portuguese courts. And some detail -such as what nationality, what type of fraud or other crime robbed them and how much they want back.
As Portugal has no functioning right to Freedom of Information no one will tell you this. Just sending you to Ministry this and Ministry that or even being told the idiocy - "Ask the Courts themselves". Yet another example of Portugal's failure to meet even basic standards of development justifying it being in the EU.