Former minister and well protected friend of Pedro Passos Coelho, Miguel Relvas again is avoiding appearing in front of a panel of MPs looking into the Efisa bank scandal.
Miguel Relvas says he is fully ready to help the inquiry in any way possible but only in writing, the ruse he used earlier to avoid struggling with the truth when questioned about his involvement with a bank that was handed €90 million by the government in which he served, only to be sold to a company Pivot SGPS in which he was involved, for the bargain price of €38 million.
The former Minister, regretfully ‘let go’ by Passos Coelho due to Relva’s on/off relationship with the truth, expressed his full readiness again to reply in writing to any new questions about Efisa, according to a letter sent to the parliamentary committee.
"I reiterate my full readiness to cooperate with the commission and parliament," wrote Miguel Relvas in a letter to Teresa Leal Coelho, dated 22 June.
"I do this with the utmost sense of responsibility and good, having a sense that it is my duty to collaborate with the institutions, particularly parliament, the heart of democracy," he continued in a syle almost designed to annoy as his use of 'parliament' has to date been self-serving.
Saying he did not want a live appearance, and all the spectacle this would involve, to get in the way of the truth, Relvas added that "I have been watching, from the distance that my professional life allows, the conduct of the committee's work on the Efisa bank process."
“I answered with rigour the questions put to me and also saw the hearing of Dr. Isabel Castelo Branco, former secretary to the Treasury, which seemed to me - and apparently to the committee of Budget, Finance and Administrative Modernisation - full and insightful " said Relvas, despite Castelo Branco’s testimony differing significantly from Relvas’ written statement on key points.
However, "and because I want the truth to win, with no doubt and with no obstacle, I have the willingness to, if it is deemed useful, to write answers to new questions that may have arisen in the context of ongoing inquiries," concluded Relvas in a letter that will infuriate many Socialist Party committee members.
Whether Relvas and his ilk will ever be pinned to a corrupt act is one of life's questions that preoccupies many.
Relvas is not obliged to appear before this committee and is entitled to send in written answers. However, the public prosecutor is waiting for the committee to report. Then an assessment can be made as to whether or not there is a criminal case worth pursuing.
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But Daphne's point still stands. Does anyone have any recollection of substantial feedback from the Portuguese grandees appearing before the Parliamentary Committees ? Perhaps the most telling comment, which is clearly the accepted standard is the banker a couple of years ago at a BES enquiry saying that 'we were all at it'. (i.e. wrongdoing)
Strongly suggesting an analogy being that of a TV reporter following a bank robber down the street and asking that timeless classic "Can you talk me through what you are doing?"
But Sir Philip did appear and played a blinder...
So Relvas and the thousands of others of his ilk in Portugal being well aware there is no risk of anything resembling an 'official summons' to turn up in person and even less of being expected, at any time, to tell the 'truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth'. Why establish a precedent ?