António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, Minister of State and Finance
Delays in appointing new managers to public regulators leave administrators still in positions at higher salary regimes. Delays cost the public purse thousands.
The lack of diligence by successive governments in timely replacement of administrators of regulatory authorities and supervision has had a direct impact on public accounts.
According to news, the continuation of managers in office beyond the end of their mandates has led to payment of higher wages than if the replacements had occurred within the legal deadlines.
In a recent report, the Court of Auditors analyzed the case of the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority (ASF), where, in 2017, three members of the board of directors remained in office after the end of their mandates. According to the court, this delay represented a additional cost of 562 thousand euros to the public treasury, since their successors would be subject to a lower remuneration regime. The vice president remained in office for more than five years beyond his term.
Similar situations are now underway at the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) and the Competition Authority (AdC). At CMVM, member José Miguel Almeida ended his term in January 2025while at AdC Miguel Moura e Silva’s mandate ended in August of the same year. Both took office in 2019, when the remuneration regime prior to the Regulatory Entities Framework Law was still in force.
This law, created in 2013 and revised in 2017, imposed indexed salary caps on public service, but does not apply retroactively to those already in office. As a result, these vowels continue to earn higher salaries to those of the current presidents of the respective entities. In 2024 alone, CMVM could have saved around 59 thousand euros with the timely replacement of José Miguel Almeida, while at AdC the estimated savings are around 25 thousand euros.
Both the CMVM and the AdC emphasize that appointments are the exclusive responsibility of the Government, with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy responsible for the respective processes. Despite the Government guaranteeing that it has mechanisms for monitoring mandates, delays continue to occur, as also happened in the succession of the governor of the Bank of Portugal.
