What do the reform of the Court of Auditors and the relaxation of bidding rules have in common? A more agile vision of the State and society, greater simplicity of processes, elimination of entropies, will argue Minister Gonçalo Matias, to whom Luís Montenegro handed over the mission of State reform. Defensible arguments, in a country entangled in bureaucracy and layers of various indecisions, as we all know.
But, taken together, they also tell another common story, a pattern that is repeated in governance and that points to a systematic easing of control systems, raising dangers of less scrutiny, greater opacity of the system and “freewheeling” in the use of public funds, in a country scorched by cases of this kind in the very recent past.
This is not necessarily less legality, but certainly less ability to detect problems early, compare decisions or understand who influences what, widening the space where abuse can exist without being detected.
Interviewed by Expressregarding the reform proposed for the activity of “her” Court of Auditors, the president of this entity, Filipa Urbano Calvão, highlights that “there is a context of greater relaxation here for carrying out public and private activities”. And he adds: “I don’t even know if there was a rigorous assessment by the Government of the impact of these measures (…).
In any case, I want to believe that we continue in a democratic State of Law and that, therefore, whatever is done at the legislative level, does not lose this ability for political power and public power in general to subject themselves to public scrutiny.” Now, remember, Filipa Calvão was already Montenegro’s choice for the position, in October 2024, and is therefore far from being considered a blocking force.
The change in philosophy that this majority wants to implement is evident: trust decision-makers more, clear paths and correct later, if necessary. In the case of the Court of Auditors, according to the president herself, if the proposal for a prior visa exemption of up to R$10 million is confirmed, “we will go from inspecting more than 1,000 contracts, worth R$9 billion, to R$100”.
The Government argues that in most European countries there is no prior control. The problem, in this simplification fever, is that we all know that known weaknesses persist in Portugal, from a Public Administration with a lack of resources to a notorious inefficiency in supervision. This is the real test that will dictate success or failure.
The question is not whether this model works in theory, it is whether it works well in a real context where control mechanisms are already fragile. And without this reinforcement of inspection mechanisms, simplification could only mean weakening the Rule of Law.
P.S.: We also learned this week that party funder lists become secret, making it harder to identify potential conflicts of interest. Another nail in the coffin of transparency.
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