Carlos Costa Neves: the “mega” Secretary General of the Government that Rosalino did not want (or could) be

Former minister Carlos Costa Neves will be the Government’s secretary general. The former minister of the governments of Santana Lopes and Pedro Passos Coelho will receive a salary in accordance with the legal table.

Carlos Costa Neves He was Minister of Agriculture in the 16th Constitutional Government, led by Pedro Santana Lopes, and of Parliamentary Affairs in the 20th Constitutional Government, led by Passos Coelhoin addition to having presided over the PSD/Açores.

Graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, he was a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic and the European Parliament between 1994 and 2002, vice-president of the PSD in 1998and several times regional secretary in social democratic governments in the Azores.

Already with Luis Montenegro As president, Carlos Costa Neves was appointed by the PSD National Jurisdiction Council as instructor of the internal investigation that the party opened into the case of corruption and party financing known as .

This operation has been investigating alleged favors to activists of PS and PSD, through agreements and public contractsinvolving suspicions of passive corruption, influence peddling, economic participation in business and prohibited financing.

In his new position as general secretary of the executive, Carlos Costa Gomes will have a salary of around 6 thousand eurosas provided for by the Single Remuneration Table for the Public Service, indicated a source from the prime minister’s office.

Costa Neves is the second name indicated by the Government to Secretary General of the Government, after taking up the position.

The appointment of Hélder Rosalino sparked controversy after it was reported that the consultant had chosen to be paid for your salary originating from Banco de Portugal, superior a 15 mil eurosand not in accordance with the Public Service Salary Table.

This, made last week, to the diploma that establishes the remuneration status of senior and intermediate managers of the General Secretariat, approved in July.

The Bank of Portugal, which has administrative and financial autonomy, clarified that would not ensure the responsibility for Hélder Rosalino’s remuneration after the former administrator took office as Secretary General of the Government, invoking Eurosystem rules on the prohibition of monetary financing.

For the Government, the refusal of the Bank of Portugalan institution led by Mário Centeno, in continuing to pay the original salary “did not impede the saving of public resources, but created undesirable complexity“.

The situation was criticized by several political partieswith the PS and Chega announcing that they will ask for parliamentary consideration of the decree approved last week.

BE defends the revocation of the diplomawhich it considers to have been made “tailor-made”, and the PAN asked the Government for “all documentation” related to the appointment.

The organic law approved in July provides for the concentration of services and the extinction of the general secretariats of nine ministries and the Government IT Network Management Center, through their merger into the general secretariat of the Government, which, according to the Executive, cuts the number of management positions by 25%, generating savings of around 4.1 million euros per year.

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, delegated the responsibility of the General Secretariat of the Government to the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, according to an order published today in the Diário da República.