ANDn statements to journalists in parliament, BE deputy Isabel Pires highlighted that, after the dismissal of the SCML board, this Monday, the “most important clarification at this moment is political: what is the plan that the PSD/CDS Government has for SCML”.
“It is still not clear. The Government has only commented on the issue of names and the reason for this dismissal. What we need to know, especially because it is not just any institution – it has not only a financial scale, but a very large social impact – , is what is really at stake”, he maintained.
Isabel Pires recalled that the institution’s financial problems “were already coming back”, and it was already known that the 2021 and 2022 accounts “had had problems”, highlighting that the Assembly of the Republic had already had hearings last year precisely to “try understand what was happening with SCML’s accounts.
“This hearing work has been carried out and we will obviously follow all hearing requests that arise in this context, because it is in our genesis to want to obtain all clarifications”, he indicated.
So far, the PS and IL have already requested hearings on this case, including the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, and the SCML ombudsman dismissed by the executive, Ana Jorge.
Asked whether former minister and former CDS director Pedro Mota Soares – who, according to Sábado magazine, will be SCML’s next provider – has the conditions to take on the role, Isabel Pires replied that for now it is just a matter of projection, which is unknown whether it will materialize or not.
“The only thing we can say about Pedro Mota Soares is that I believe many people in the country still remember the time when he was Minister of Social Security [entre 2011 e 2015, durante o Governo de Passos Coelho] and it is not exactly a time of good memory. So obviously it could make us worried,” she said, despite noting that “nothing is confirmed.”
When asked if she considered that, with Ana Jorge’s dismissal, we could be facing a case of “political sanitation”, the BE deputy replied that the party is not in the habit of “commenting on these types of changes”.
“What interests us, and what the Portuguese people need to understand, more than this exchange of names for people who are closer or less politically close, what really matters is the politics behind this choice”, he said, reiterating that “this, to date, has not yet been revealed by the Government”.
The government announced on Monday that the SCML administration was dismissed “with immediate effect”, justifying the decision because the team “revealed itself incapable of facing the institution’s serious financial and operational problems”.
The SCML was currently headed by the former socialist Minister of Health Ana Jorge, who served as ombudsman for around a year, with the remaining SCML Board made up of a deputy ombudsman and four members.
“Unfortunately, this decision became inevitable because the Board, now outgoing, proved to be incapable of facing the institution’s serious financial and operational problems, which could in the short term compromise the fundamental task of social action that it is responsible for”, he explained. the executive in a statement.
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