Audit to Chega finds “possible prohibited financing”, party stopped delivering lists of donations

Chega confirms that it was unable to identify the origin of several transfers in 2019. And contrary to what happens with other parties, the most recent accounts consulted do not allow us to understand who all the donors are

The Political Accounts and Financing Entity (ECFP), which works alongside the Constitutional Court, found signs of “non-compliance with the law on donations” and “possible prohibited financing” in Chega’s accounts for 2019, the year the party was founded which, on the contrary of the majority, stopped delivering donation lists in the most recent years (2021 and 2022).

An investigation by Exclusivo da TVI, from the same group as CNN Portugal, into the party accounts consulted the audit and report that censor the 2019 accounts of the party led by André Ventura, as well as the most recent accounts where it proved impossible to know who they are. the party’s donors – hundreds of donations are only identified on bank statements with the generic name of the digital payments and donations application used by Chega.

Deposits of unknown origin

In the case of the 2019 accounts, there is still no definitive decision on Chega’s accounts, but the first audit concluded that “the party did not present a list of donations with details by donor”.

In some cases, bank statements only reveal a name, but in others, not even that. At issue are, for example, the two largest donations to Chega that year (4,300 and 5,000 euros).

Of the 21 thousand euros donated to Chega in 2019, more than half have no name on bank statements.

The report sent by the ECFP to the party, in June 2023, indicates that “the situations mentioned prevent the verification of the origin of the revenue, compromising the inspection of any prohibited financing”. “The party must be notified to identify the origin of the donations, indicating their name and another identifying element (Citizen’s Card or NIF). Without these elements, the possibility of prohibited financing cannot be excluded, which must be investigated by the holder of the criminal action. “

Remember that a few days ago, after another question about the party’s accounts, André Ventura guaranteed total transparency in donations, said that they are all visible in the ECFP and even advised journalists to consult them in this same entity.

“Personal data protection”

However, in Chega’s contradictory writing to the ECFP, dated June 2023, the party refused to clearly identify the donors from that year 2019.
“The transfer, in the vast majority of cases, comes with the name of the payer. The remaining data is personal and protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and will only be provided if authorized by them and the person responsible for the GDPR”, indicates the broken.

On the other hand, “in cash deposits, an individual sheet was made per deposit with the party’s letterhead”. “We remind you once again that such data is protected by the GDPR”, he reiterates.

The experts consulted by TVI guarantee that the GDPR cannot serve as an excuse as there is a political financing law that requires the clear identification of party donors.

If Chega’s refusal continues, the case must be referred for the opening of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Party cannot identify donors

In his responses to Exclusivo, Chega’s general secretary, Rui Paulo Sousa, confirms that the first annual accounts had problems as it was not possible to identify all the supporters who made donations to the party in the year of its foundation, when André Ventura managed to be elected congressperson.

Chega does not know the origin of several donations made that year, but Rui Paulo Sousa says, however, that data protection problems were raised by the bank (and not by the party) when they tried to find out who had made these bank transfers.

With only one deputy elected, between 2019 and 2022, Chega received little public subsidy and was very dependent on private support.

We are in 2024 and the entity that monitors money in politics, which suffers from a chronic lack of resources, has not yet made a final decision on Chega’s 2019 accounts, nor on any other party that year.

Arrives without donation lists

TVI Exclusive’s analysis of the most recent accounts reveals other doubts. In 2020, Chega still provided a list of donors, but in 2021 and 2022 it stopped doing so, contrary to what is requested by the entity that monitors money in politics, making it difficult or even impossible for those who consult the data to understand who the donors are. of the party.

Instead of this list, only bank statements were found at ECFP, which do not allow the names of all donors to be identified.

In 2021 alone, the year with the most donations and the affirmation of Chega, which in January of the following year managed to elect 12 deputies, TVI counted more than 170 thousand euros, in hundreds of deposits, which entered Chega’s donation account without identification of the origin. In place of this origin is only the reference to a digital payment and donation institution.

“The information is there”

Chega’s general secretary admits that it may not be easily findable, unlike what happens with other parties, but guarantees that for 2021 and 2022 the Accounts Entity received digital files with receipts that will allow it to know who gave money to the party.

“The information is there, it may not be as simple to see as a list. It’s all in the files and documentation delivered, in the files, in the analytical balance sheets. The Accounts Entity doesn’t know what it does with that information”, says Rui Paulo Sousa.

After the interview with the financial officer, TVI returned to ECFP and did not find the aforementioned digital files.

Regarding the list of donations requested by the entity in the instructions it gives to parties, if it is indeed mandatory (or even at the request of journalists), Chega promises to deliver it after a few weeks as “first this needs to be implemented”. “For today or tomorrow or any other day, the system is not prepared for that.”

Rui Paulo Sousa guarantees that Chega’s system for receiving donations is the most modern of all the parties and explains that they always assumed “that, as the information was there, not in that way, but in another way, it was not necessary to make such a list “.

Donation to the Liberal Initiative under the name of a broker

The difficulty in knowing the names of all donors is not, however, unique to Chega. Also in the analysis carried out on the Liberal Initiative (IL) accounts, doubts arose.

In addition to the lack of identification numbers or NIF (which the party has already promised to start collecting), there are incomplete names, even among the biggest donors and in other cases not even names are revealed, just a number.

In 2021, for example, the largest donation made to the liberals reached the maximum stipulated by law, 10,970 euros, but instead of the name there is just the identification of a broker. IL guarantees that it complies with the law, despite not revealing to TVI who made this donation, saying that “there are few transfers through international or online payment platforms”, an origin that the experts consulted by Exclusivo consider legally dubious.

“In the event of a blank name in the list, it is a typo that is corrected when identified, or information presented when requested”, adds the Liberal Initiative.

“Huge setback in terms of transparency”

It should be remembered that experts in political financing and corruption control have long lamented the lack of resources of the Political Accounts and Financing Entity, as well as the changes made to the law in 2018.

Margarida Salema, former president of the entity for eight years, highlights the lack of powers and the difficulty of getting parties to do what the reports say is wrong.

Luís de Sousa, researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL), says that there has been “a huge setback in terms of guarantees of transparency in recent years”.

With so many cases pending at the ECFP, Chega, for example, has not yet had a single annual account definitively evaluated by the entity that controls money in Portuguese politics and is already heading to its third legislative election on March 10th. .