Court of Auditors to probe 2023 audit irregularities – Portugal Resident

The daily news bulletins on perceived ‘irregularities’ haunting the years that Interior Minister Luís Neves was national director of the country’s PJ criminal police have been updated today with claims that he is now “going to be judged by the Court of Auditors for actions” during his eight year mandate, while the Justice Minister has also stepped in, ordering an internal assessment of the PJ, and an external audit.

The news from the Court of Auditors is in direct contradiction to yesterday’s news, where it was stated that the court had indeed detected irregularities, but decided to waive them.

Today, SIC Notícias reports that it “knows that the case was lodged on June 24 and that it already has a judge attributed” to it.

At issue is the 2023 audit that revealed ‘irregularities during the mandate of Luís Neves while he was national director of the PJ’.

Also cited in the case is the former deputy national director, Luísa Proença.

None of this suggests Neves, Proença or indeed anyone else will be sanctioned as a result of the apparent case, but it does suggest that the forces pursuing the interior minister are on a relentless campaign to unseat him.

Prime minister Luís Montenegro is being eternally questioned by journalists about ‘what he thinks’ of the various developments/ what he is going to do/ whether Luís Neves is in a position to remain in government, and, up until now, he has refrained from becoming further involved. He has, in the recent past, said he has every faith in Luís Neves, and considers him to be a “very competent minister”. The pressure, however, is not letting up.

And, confirming this neatly, just as this text was being uploaded, Expresso reported that the Ministry of Justice has decided to launch an “audit” and an “internal assessment” of the PJ as a result of all the media allegations.

The audit will be carried out by the Inspectorate-General of Justice Services, which was headed for many years by the current Secretary of State for Justice, Judge Gonçalo da Cunha Pires.

According to the office of Minister Rita Alarcão Júdice, “the Ministry of Justice considered that there were no grounds to request the Inspectorate-General of Justice Services (IGSJ) to open an investigation into the movement of the trailer, as this matter is already the subject of an inquiry led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office”. However, this inspection “will also carry out an audit of the PJ”. Although the Ministry of Justice states that the IGSJ “regularly audits and inspects all justice bodies”, the truth is that this type of audit of the Judicial Police is very rare and there is no public record of any such audit having been carried out in recent years.

In addition to this external audit, the Ministry of Justice has also ordered “an internal assessment to be carried out, aimed at addressing the issues that have been reported in the media”. In other words: “Reports concerning the internal workings of the Judicial Police”. This “internal assessment” will be carried out by the Judicial Police’s Directorate of Disciplinary and Inspection Services, the body responsible for initiating any disciplinary proceedings.

The transport of a trailer that had been seized during an operation to combat drug trafficking to the premises of Construbarcelos – a company owned by a contractor who is a friend of Luís Neves and which carried out works for the Judicial Police and for the current minister – is expected to be the central focus of this “internal assessment” and will not be overlooked in the General Inspectorate’s “audit”.

At a press conference where he sought to explain all the allegations “point by point”, Luís Neves described the transport of the “galera” (the technical name for the vehicle) and the 12,400 litres of solvents as “an extraordinary act of management” and stated that he would do the same again.

In December 2024, the Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the chemicals to be destroyed, but this order was never carried out. Luís Neves claims that quotes provided by the companies consulted that could have done the job indicated a cost of “150,000 euros” and, for this reason, he chose to store the vehicle and the solvents “temporarily” at his friend’s company. The seized items were initially stored in a Maritime Authority warehouse, but the Navy requested that the material be removed. There is no official record of the collection and transport, and it is this “informality” that will now be audited and assessed.

UPDATE: Refreshingly, Luís Neves has answered questions on all the above this afternoon, and said he is completely relaxed about the new probes, in fact he asked for them. “It isn’t me who is being judged”, he explained: it is the processes that took place while he was at the head of the country’s criminal police force. “It is good that that all these audits, investigations, hearings and checks take place because then, finally, the truth will come to the surface,” he said.

Source material: SIC Notícias/ Expresso