José Sena Goulão / LUSA
Isaltino Morais
There would have been more than 1,400 meals unduly paid for with city money, between 2017 and 2025. The Chamber of Oeiras refuted the “suspicions and accusations”, reiterating that it “always acted within the law”.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office accused Isaltino Moraispresident of the Chamber of Oeiras, and 22 others accused, including councilors and employees, of embezzlement and abuse of power for spending R$150,000 on meals paid for by the municipality.
According to the MP’s indictment, to which the Lusa agency had access today, the facts occurred during the 2017-2021 and 2021-2025 municipal mandates, totaling in these periods more than 1,400 meals unduly paid for with local authority money.
In case of conviction, the prosecutor MP defends the loss of mandate of Isaltino Morais and the mayors targeted, also asking that Isaltino Morais return R$70 thousand, individually, and another R$79 thousandjointly and severally, together with the other defendants.
A accusation discriminates against lunch or dinner meals, some over 900 euros, which included seafood, drinks and even tobaccoheld in restaurants in the municipality of Oeiras, but also in the neighboring municipalities of Lisbon, Mafra, Cascais and Sintra.
The MP says that, after taking office as mayor of Oeiras, in October 2017, “taking advantage of the position in which he was invested and in which he was re-elected in 2021”, Isaltino Morais “formulated a plan – which he maintained throughout his 2017-2021 municipal administration and then throughout his 2021-2025 municipal administration, at least, until June 20, 2024.”
This intention was “to appropriate, in its own interest, for its own benefit and for the benefit of third parties, assets belonging to the City Council, specifically, monetary amounts belonging to this municipality, and intended for public purposes, through the payment of meals, either for themselves or for third parties, which were not owed to them and to which, by law, they were not entitled”, states the complaint, initially published by .
The MP says that the defendants “acted in violation of the obligations of legalityof pursuing the public interest, of exemption, impartiality and loyalty to which they were bound, spending, between 2017 and 2024, thousands of euros belonging to the municipality of Oeiras on meals, their own and those of third parties”.
“All with the full knowledge and acquiescence of the accused Isaltino Afonso Morais”, indicates the accusation.
According to the MP, from the 2017-2021 municipal mandate, Isaltino Morais “drawn up a plan” and “established, without formalities, as a practice that, whenever it was appropriate, after paying in restaurants the price due for the lunch, snack or dinner meals that he would eat and or that third parties accompanying him would eat, would obtain its reimbursement at the expense of public money allocated to the municipality of Oeiras”.
“To this end, he would present the invoices for such meals to the accounting service and order that the respective amount be reimbursed in cash.which would be taken from the Presidency’s Working Fund, accountingly justifying such expenses under the pretext of ‘representation expenses’ and naming them as ‘work meetings’”, explains the indictment.
The MP emphasizes that Isaltino Morais authorized this practice informally and verbally to councilors and defendants Francisco Rocha Gonçalves (vice-president), Joana Micaela Baptista (councilwoman of Lisbon City Council), Pedro Patacho, Armando Soares, Nuno Neto, Teresa Bacelar, Carla Rocha, Susana Duarte and Ana Laborinho da Fonseca.
The president of the Municipal Assembly of Oeiras, between 2021-2025, the defendant Elisabete Oliveiraas well as other senior technicians and employees of the city of Oeiras, equally accused, “started to followwhenever it was opportune, the described practice from October 2017 and until June 20, 2024, at least, doing so in different ways”.
Isaltino Afonso Morais “then signed the payment orders for the value of such invoices in his favor and in favor of those councilors, president of the Assembly and employees who had presented them, thus obtaining, and ensuring that they were obtained, the respective full reimbursement of the amounts paid for such meals”.
Oeiras Chamber refutes “suspicions and accusations”
“Work meals were carried out in strict compliance with applicable legal standards and within the scope of the regular exercise of institutional functions”stated in a statement sent to Lusa an official source from the chamber presided over by Isaltino Morais, elected by the Inov25 movement (Isaltino Inovar Oeiras 25).
“The Chamber of Oeiras also clarifies that all associated expenses were duly processed, documented and subject to internal mechanisms of accounting control, in accordance with public administration and municipal financial management standards”, he said.
The city hall of the Lisbon district, he added, “will continue to collaborate fully with the competent authorities, providing all necessary clarifications throughout the process, with the conviction that the facts will be duly clarified”.
The president of the executive finally reaffirmed “his commitment to transparency, legality and good management of public resourcesprinciples that guide its daily activities at the service of the population of Oeiras”.
Isaltino Morais presides over the Chamber of Oeiras, for Inov25, which in previous elections won nine of the 11 executive mandates, which also includes a councilor from the PS and one from Chega.
