The State Secretaries of Internationalisation (Jorge Costa Oliveira), Fiscal Affairs (Rocha Andrade) and Industry (João Vasconcelos) asked to be relieved from their roles even though no charges have as yet been brought against them. They have also asked to exercise their rights to be made formal defendants (arguidos) in the probe being conducted by the public prosecutor into their trips to the Euro 2016, which were allegedly paid for by national oil giants Galp.
They say their decision is intended to avoid harming the government.
In August last year, Galp played down reports that it had invited the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Fernando Rocha Andrade, to attend football matches during the recent European Championship finals.
Galp Energia said it “is common” and ethically acceptable to invite officials with which it has relations to certain types of events.
The opposition People’s Party had called for Andrade’s resignation, describing as “reprehensible and serious” the fact that he travelled at Galp’s invitation to France to see matches in which Portugal’s national team was involved, as reported by the online edition of Sábado
magazine.
Galp stressed it has been an official sponsor of the national team since 1999 and that, besides using the team’s image and symbols in advertising campaigns, it seeks to increase the visibility and impact of the sponsorship in other ways, such as by issuing invitations to people and institutions with which it has relations.
That same month Fernando Negrão, a deputy for Portugal’s opposition Social Democratic Party, also called for the Prime Minister António Costa to clarify the situation of the three secretaries of state who accepted invitations from Galp.
This led to Portugal’s government introducing a code of conduct in September 2016 that prohibits high-ranking public officials from receiving gifts worth more than 150 euros.