Under attack today in parliament, the prime minister said that "the Minister of Finance did not lie" about an alleged deal with Caixa Geral directors.
Opposition MPs accused the finance minister of having lied to parliament when he denied the existence of an agreement between the government and António Domingues that Domingues and other directors did not have to present their declaration of assets to the Constitutional Court
The Prime Minister, António Costa, assured MPs today that his minister, Mário Centeno "did not lie"
Luís Montenegro, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democratic Party said, "The finance minister lied about the resignation of the president of Caixa Geral de Depósitos,” a statement he made on the sound basis of documents revealed on Wednesday by the newspaper Eco, which published a record of the correspondence between António Domingues and Finance Minister, Mário Centeno, in which the former president of Caixa Geral stated there was a commitment that exempted him from presenting his income and asset statements.
"No wonder the Minister of Finance has kept the conversation with Domingues from you," said Montenegro, who also stated that the prime minister knew about the agreement, but did not want to admit he knew.
On 18 October, 2016 the Finance Minister attended parliament to talk about the salary agreed for Domingues: €30,000 per month.
On October 23, 2016 Marques Mendes raises the question in his weekly comment programme on SIC, when he said that Caixa Geral's directors had been exempted from delivering their income and asset statements.
Former Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, said he considered that Mário Centeno’s position "is very fragile," but that it will not be the Social Democratic Party to ask for his resignation.
The PSD leader said that "it will have to be the prime minister to evaluate whether or not to replace the minister," whick looked unlikely as António Costa has said that the resignation of the finance minister, "is out of the question."
The CDS-PP reiterated that the Ministry of Finance tried to hide communications with António Domingues, insisted that lying to a commission of inquiry could constitute a crime and challenged the minister and the prime minister to take the consequences.
The prime minister would perhaps be on safer ground if he said he knew of no such agreement but by saying the finance minister did not lie, António Costa has laid himself open to charges of lying over the affair that saw Domingues and several co-directors leave office after less than four months leaving the management on Caixa in a shambles.
