Two weeks after Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has reappointed Carlos Costa for another five years ahead of the Bank of Portugal (BoP), the governor yesterday returned to St. Benedict to submit to the scrutiny of the deputies (to read text side), which the new rule of appointment of the supervisor responsible for most of which require the name proposed by the Government to submit to questions from deputies.
Hearing enrolled in a particularly difficult context for the entity, marked by evidence of breach of trust in various levels of the institution and signs of lack of solidarity within the administration itself. But also critical to excessive alignment Carlos Costa with government guidelines.
One of the episodes took place on 9 May this year. An international conference on the future of Europe in the presence of international speakers who raised doubts about the success of austerity and the current economic policy model policies, Carlos Costa claimed that what was at issue was a problem of communication of the measures implemented by executive and that it was necessary that citizens realize the aim of requests sacrifices. It also considered that no one take unpopular measures to be masochistic. The explanations were interpreted internally by some technicians and staff of the bop, he found the PUBLIC next to the institution sources, such as reducing and unilateral, while the opposition accused Carlos Costa to stick to the thesis of the Government.
After the August 3, 2014 have been applied to BES measurement resolution were several incidents to accentuate the tensions around the BoP. In the months following injection in the BES 4900 euros of state funds and the sector, Carlos Costa came apparently to serve as a lightning rod the Government’s decisions – although many were subscribed for themselves. What in certain bop balls left an image that would be to take positions in favor of the guidelines of the executive and could jeopardize the credibility of the bop, whose status imposes independence. But this is a vision that is not subscribed by other staff for whom “during the CPI to BES the governor always had a behavior consistent with protecting the interests and bop theses”.
But the episode greater visibility which put the grain of sand in the gear dates back to September 10, 2014 (six weeks after the collapse of GES / BES) when the Minister of State and Finance swore two new administrators bop, Antonio Varela and Hélder Rosalino (which replaced Teodora Cardoso and José Silveira Godinho). Maria Luiz Albuquerque then declared that appointments “reinforce” the trust between the supervisor and the Government and even considered António Varela as the right person to lead the prudential supervision department. So it was possible to determine the following days, it was learned that not only the minister imposed the Costa Varela as the name suggested it to be given to prudential supervision. The initiatives were interpreted internally PUBLIC confirmed from sources of the central bank, as an intrusion in an area reserved for the governor and a violation of the independence of the institution.
A senior executive of the bank noted that the PUBLIC ” We never saw a government official to rule on who should take the responsibilities in the bop, which is the exclusive competence of the governor. ” And he said that “allow failure to follow its own rules of bop is an institutional sloppiness” and that “the independence of the BoP is expected in the treaties” Europeans.
Indeed, according to the organic law of the bop, it is up to the board, “the proposal of the governor, assign to its members responsibilities corresponding to one or more services of the bank”. What also proved unusual was the fact that the BOP has issued the September 4, 2014, six days before the inauguration of two directors, a statement stating that the two appointments of Government “produced effect from today “and to indicate a redistribution of responsibilities in the administration of bop that it was withdrawing Duarte Neves prudential supervision and gave the Varela. Costa has already explained that the solution had to do with the fact that Neves go take responsibility in European terms, as deputy governor of bop, and that, as the Varela mandate is five years, he was given the banking supervision.
PUBLIC another charge of bop noted that when “the statement came out we were surprised because Antonio Varela and Hélder Rosalino were not officially in office.” The rule is to assign responsibilities on the first board of directors after the designation.
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