The MP who is alleged to have asked a colleague to sign him in to parliament, while he was nowhere near Lisbon, is to be investigated by the Public Prosecutor.
José Silvano pretended he was in parliament when he wasn’t, so the Office of the Attorney General’s Lucília Gago stated today that, "as a result of the analysis carried out, the Office decided to refer the available evidence to the Department of Criminal Investigation and Action with a view to initiating an investigation."
The case of José Silvano's trickery was reported by the Expresso in early November which reported that on the afternoon of October 18, Silvano was in Vila Real fulfilling a program of meetings that began at 15:30.
Despite his absence, somebody registered him on the computerised log-in system as 'present,' at the beginning of a parliamentary session a few minutes past 15:00.
Following the controversy surrounding this case, Silvano's PSD colleague, the MP Emília Cerqueira, admitted that on one occasion, November 9, she "inadvertently" registered Silvano on the computerised system that logs MPs into parliament.
The MP said she had access to Silvano’s personal password and the passwords of other MPs “and vice versa,” so she could have access to documents and work files stored in their respective computers.
"I have the password of some colleagues I'm very close to, and they have mine. It's part of the life of many organisations," she said, denying any request by Silvano to register him as present in parliament when he was miles away.
José Silvano is not alone. Other MPs have shown a ghostly presence in parliament.
Silvano's predecessor as PSD Secretary-General, José Matos Rosa, was in Cape Verde on February 3, 2017, but on the morning of that day he also was recorded in Lisbon through his personal log-in code.
The same happened to MP Duarte Marques who, on May 4, 2017, was attending a conference in Porto but also managed to log-in with his account.
The truth will be found but this sort of behaviour, coming hot on the heels of the travel allowance expense scandal, rightly should cause embarrassment and resignation - mind you, these are politicians we are discussing...
Comments
For me, the problem lies not in the nationality of these wrongdoers, nor in the system of political parties, but in the payment of large salaries and expenses to Deputies and MPs, coupled with the sense of entitlement that these people grow.
I do not see a way out of this problem, unless there should be an independent arbiter, such as the President of the Republic, or the Court of Auditors. They have tried a Parliamentary Commissioner in Britain, but so long as this person is appointed by MPs, there can be no hope for improved standards of behaviour.