António Cotrim / Lusa
Documents reveal inaccessibility of the Prime Minister’s properties: the number of the matrix of the six urban and 49 rustic properties of Montenegro is not visible to the public.
Documents of the entity for Transparency (EPT) confirm that all 55 properties declared by Luís Montenegro meet the respective matrix numbers inaccessible to the publicwhich contradicts the initial statements of the Prime Minister himself and his office.
According to EPT, Montenegro requested opposition to access the matrix numbers relating only to six urban properties. But for technical reasons, the electronic platform applied by the entity does not allow distinguishing between urban and rustic real estate, hiding all records, advances the. In practice, this decision prevents citizens from consulting complete information about any of 55 properties Declared by the Prime Minister: Six Urban and 49 Rustic.
The explanation given by EPT maintains that, for reasons of operation of the platform, Requests focus on integer fields of information and not on individual records. Thus, by covering the field “Real Estate Heritage-Matrix Registration”, the opposition automatically extended to all properties.
On Sunday, leaving the Summer University of the PSD, the prime minister stated that he had not opposed the disclosure of any number of matrix. Hours later, Your cabinet came to fix it: confirmed that opposition was requested, but only with respect to six urban properties linked to the usual residence and nearby family properties, in order to ensure their security.
The number of matrix is an essential fact for the identification of real estate in Portugal. Together with the home and the owner’s NIF, it allows you to access the deeds and check any purchase and sale businesses. As the law already states that the address and the NIF cannot be made public, the omission of the matrix number makes any independent scrutiny over the real estate heritage of political positions. The limitation weakens the mission of transparency and public supervision that justified the creation of EPT in 2019.
Among the six urban properties covered by the opposition request are two parking lots located in Bragança, attached to a 78 square meter T2 apartment. Tax registrations attribute to the apartment a tax asset amount of less than 39 thousand euros, while parking lots have values between 3790 and 4120 euros. According to EPT itself, these properties are in a statement of income in which the numbers of the matrices were not opposed.
The arrival has already confirmed that it will directly question Luís Montenegro and the entity for transparency, through Parliament, on the subject.
