Enough changes inquiry to Luís Neves, but contradicts alerts of Aguiar-White

Na request addressed to the president of the Assembly of the Republic, released today by the Aquida, the party led by André Ventura asks that José Pedro Aguiar-Branco “it is worth determining the implementation of the procedures necessary for a rapid installation of the commission of inquiry requested”, already from 15 September, the beginning of the new legislative session.

This request arises after an order from José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, to which Lusa had access last day 03, in which she warned that she would refuse to admit the application if the Aquida did not change its grounds and object.

One of Aguiar-Branco’s concerns was related to the object of the proposed survey, understanding that the reference to the “intervention of Luís Neves as director of the PJ during all his mandates” should be reformulated in order to “identify the acts, decisions, procedures or concrete matters that are intended to be investigated”.

“ The commission may not be generally empowered to scrutinize the entire functional activity of a person for a period of about eight years, and the object must allow the recognition, from the moment of the constitution, of the material limits of their competence”, justified Aguiar-White.

This is one of the points which the Committee on the Achievement does not change in the new request, expressing disagreements with the position of the President of Parliament.

“ The grounds for your order contradict the constitutionally and legally defined scope of the parliamentary inquiry by preventing the overall management of the Judicial Police, particularly in the areas of strategic, operational, financial and human resources management, from being subject to public scrutiny. For more, when it focuses only on a period of time limited, coincident with the mandates of the National Director Luís Neves, today Minister of Internal Administration ", argues the party.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Group also points out that the Aquira “does not ask to scrutinize ‘all the functional activity of a person for a period of about eight years’” but “the scrutiny of management by the National Director Luís Neves”.

For Enough, “the time limit is defined” as well as “the material limits of investigative competence” of the CPI: “it is the overall management of the Judicial Police, in the areas of strategic, operational, financial and human resources management, including training and development”.

Four points are amended in the light of the previous request. With regard to the analysis of the contracts awarded by PJ to the company Construbarcelos, the party realizes that it intends to analyze them “as to the legal compliance of the procedure chosen, the adequacy of the price of the contract to the work carried out, the professional qualification of the contractor and his previous curriculum in works of the same nature, the justification of the classification of the works as secret to the face of the applicable law and the subsequent omission of the publication of certain awards in the public procurement database”.

It also aims to “check the existence or absence of conflicts of interest in the hiring of the same company for the realization of private works of the then Director of PJ, as compensation for the guarantee of the award of more works, by the Judiciary Police, to that company”.

The President of Parliament requested that reference be made to the responsibility of the members of the Government who intervened in the 2018 nominations or renewals, 2021 and 2024 and exercised powers in relation to the PJ, with the Aquim modifying the object to: “Evaluate the definition of the general guidelines for the management and supervision of the Judiciary Police’s management activity by the government in the same period (2018-2026).”

When the Aquida proposes that the reasons that determined the removal of Luís Neves and the PJ from the investigation Operation Influencer – case that led to the resignation of former Prime Minister António Costa – the party specifies that it intends to “inquire the protection of the PJ on whether, following the removal of the PJ from the investigation of Operation Influencer, questioned the National Director Luís Neves on the motive, as well as promoted some of the supervisory measures provided for in Article 71 of Decree-Law No 137/2019, of 13 September”.