Jamila Madeira, socialist deputy to the Assembly of the Republic elected by the Algarve, admits that she has accumulated the functions of deputy with those of consultant for the company REN, on a partial basis, since 2010, but guarantees that everything was done within the rules.
The Algarve deputy also announced that she suspended her employment contract with REN and that she began to assume the mandate of deputy exclusively
The head of the list of the PS in the Algarve region in the last Legislatives reacted to the news advanced by Correio da Manhã on Saturday, as well as to the position taken by the PSD Algarve, which defends that «the legality must be restored, fulfilled in a scrupulous and that if any damage resulted from the same, the person responsible must bear the consequences».
In a note sent to the newsrooms, the PSD Algarve says that the situation is far from being clarified, "especially with regard to the conflict of interests and the commitment to its main mission, and never accessory or secondary, to represent the Algarve".
She even urges the socialist deputy to do "more for the Algarve and less for REN".
Contacted by Sul Informação, Jamila Madeira clarifies, in a written response, that she has been an employee of REN Serviços since 1997, where she started «as an intern, after completing her degree in economics, currently holding the position of consultant as a professional career category», at that company.
«In 2010, in my own way, I asked the Assembly of the Republic for an opinion to investigate the possibility of being a deputy while simultaneously maintaining my job and my professional activity, albeit part-time. The Assembly of the Republic concludes that yes», he recalls.
«Accumulation is done under the terms of the law like other professionals who are not in exclusivity», he reinforced.
Meanwhile, Jamila Madeira was Secretary of State for Health. «While I was in the Government, I never accumulated functions», she assures.
The Socialist deputy guarantees that in July 2022, after leaving the Government and returning to Parliament, she asked the AR, «again on her own initiative», to comment on whether she could carry out her part-time job at REN Services, simultaneously with the functions of deputy.
The opinion that was requested ended up not being presented at the Transparency Commission, as it was supposed to be, since Jamila Madeira guarantees that, «at the end of December and even before the Assembly of the Republic takes a decision» on her request for an opinion , decided to suspend her activity at the company and «remain, with effect from 1 January 2023, as a deputy on an exclusive basis».
«On the 10th of January, I was informed that, by decision of the Transparency Commission coordinators' table, my request for an opinion, formulated in July 2022, had been withdrawn, due to the supervening uselessness of the dispute», that is, for loss of need, according to the socialist deputy.
O Público newspaper, citing a statement from the Commission for Transparency and Statute of Deputies, says that the CTED confirmed, this Tuesday, the decision of the vice-president of the PS bench.
According to CTED, the deputy asked him, on 28 July, for an opinion on her employment relationship with REN Serviços. On the 21st of September, after the reopening of parliamentary work, this request went “to the working group on the registration of interests, coordinated by the socialist Pedro Delgado Alves. The preparation of the opinion was only distributed on 2 December to the social democrat Emília Cerqueira, who presented the document at the CTED for discussion and voting on 20 December. At that meeting, the PS asked for the potestative postponement (mandatory and without the need for justification) of the debate on the opinion», continues Público.
Jamila Madeira, in the written statement she sent to the Sul Informação, argues that «the functions, projects and tasks I performed at REN Serviços are not likely to generate any conflict of interest, and therefore, in no way configures the nature of the impediment that underlies the rules relating to the status of members of Parliament» , he added.
REN, the Algarve parliamentarian further clarified, «is not a public service concessionaire» nor responsible for «providing services or maintaining subordinate work relationships with institutions, companies or companies that are concessionaires of public services or that are part of a public-private partnership with the State)".
But, according to the newspaper Público, this was not the understanding of the CTED, in the opinion that was not discussed. «That opinion concluded that there was an impediment between the exercise of the parliamentary mandate and the employment relationship of the deputy with REN». The newspaper adds that Jamila's contract was signed «under the regime of plurality of employers, with the contract with REN – Rede Eléctrica Nacional and with REN Serviços», although the latter is the one who pays.
Now, REN – Rede Eléctrica Nacional has the concession, for 50 years, of the global management of the public electricity supply system, which will undermine the arguments of the socialist deputy.
Jamila Madeira also guaranteed that she is «always available to clarify, and in a documented way», her situation since she started public functions, classifying as «serious the succession of news» about her that became public and defending that «it is not possible, lightly tarnish anyone's good name".
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