In 31 of the top 50 listed companies on the Portuguese Stock Exchange there are 51 politicians in management, administration and supervisory positions.
56% of these politicians are crammed into just 9 of the listed companies. 47% are or were ministers and many of them hold jobs in more than one company.
In the top 20 companies in Portugal, only two have a politician-free management and the number of companies with political connections is about three times higher than companies that have no politicians on the board.
These findings are from an investigation carried out by Maria Teresa Bianchi, a management scientist from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Oporto, who cross-referenced the names of all the politicians that had served in Portugal’s parliament since 1974 with a list of current board members of the companies listed on Portugal’s stock exchange in 2010.
One highlight is the current Defence Minister Jose Pedro Aguiar Branco who managed to find the time to earn a fee from Portucel, Semapa and Impresa from which he received €4,040 per meeting in 2010 while at the same time running Portugal's army, navy and airforce. Then there is António Lobo Xavier, ex-MP and current councillor in Penafiel, who is on the board of BPI, Mota Engil and Sonaecom and who earned €3,700 per meeting from attending 22 meetings in 2010 - the list of company boards populated by politicians is extensive with Zon Multimedia, Soares da Costa Group and EDP paying former politicians to advise and govern mostly as as non-executive directors which involves turning up to several meeting a year.
Maria Teresa Bianchi may be facing a curtailed career as she also identified the presence of relatives of ministers, chiefs of staff, members of each party's national political committees and of the Conselho de Estado, and people from Casa Civil do Presidente da República – Cavaco Silva’s retinue.
Shareholders are responsible for those running their company but non-executive directors are responsible for determining the pay levels of executive directors and have a prime role in appointing and where necessary removing senior management, and in succession planning. If senior management pay tidy fees for non-exec appearances at meetings the concern is that pay levels for executive directors rise in sympathy.
See also: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/1384-it-s-still-jobs-for-the-boys-in-portugal-s-government
