The Minister of Internal Administration has ordered an inquiry into the "alleged participation" of a State employee on a trip financed by Oracle, a US technology company.
The note from the minister's office comes after a State employee “of an MAI-dependent structure” traveled to San Francisco on a trip paid for by Oracle at the time of Oracle Open World 2014.
The official in question is Francisco Baptista, head of the Multidisciplinary Systems and Production Team of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration and as such, would not be allowed to accept paid-for travel offered by a private company.
In the note sent to the press, the minister's office said that "as a result of news about the alleged participation of an official of the General Secretariat of Internal Administration at an event in the United States financed by a private company, the minister has asked the General Inspectorate of Internal Administration to open an inquiry to determine the circumstances."
Minister, Constança Urbano de Sousa, "also determined that the inquiry, which should be completed within 30 days, should be extended to any travel paid for by private companies for officials of any services under the Ministry of Internal Administration."
The inquiry request comes after reports on Monday that five State officials from the Ministries of Social Security, Finance, Health and Internal Affairs traveled to San Francisco in the United States and stayed between September 28 and October 2, 2014.
State employees taking travel paid for by Oracle are not the only ones to be under the spotlight as the Public Prosecutor's Office already has opened an investigation into travel to China funded by NOS telecommunications for senior managers in the Ministry of Health.
This inquiry into illegally accepting travel costs was triggered by the Tax Authority revealing that it is conducting a full inquiry into the China trip.
On Monday, August 28, six managers at the Ministry of Health offered to resign. This was not accepted by the Health Minister, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, who said he prefers to wait for investigation results before making a decision.
