Portugal’s former Finance Minister under the latter part of the Pedro Passos Coelho coalition administration has accepted a job while still serving as an MP.
Maria Luís Albuquerque was has been appointed as a non- executive director of a British debt management company deeply involved in the Banif fiasco.
Arrow Global makes its money in buying bad debt from financial institutions and then getting the money back from debtors.
Albuquerque’s appointment caused uproar in the ranks of opposition parties, especially the Left Bloc which says the twin role is unacceptable and embarrassing. Albuquerque said that there is no legal barrier to her taking the job and that anyone who disagrees with her is doing so for political purposes.
After the Communist and Left Bloc parties have had their say, Maria Luís Albuquerque issued a statement that their employment by a multinational that had dealings with Banif poses no question of legality or incompatibility.
"The non- executive director function is not incompatible with having been a Minister of State for Finance and being a current MP," reads the five-point note distributed by the former minister.
Albuquerque confirmed her "imminent appointment as non-executive director of Arrow Global," adding that she will start work on March 7th.
In 2014, Arrow bought Banif debt as part of the deal when Santander took over Banif for just €150 million, but Maria Luís Albuquerque said that "no decision taken by the company in the past was conditioned or influenced by any kind of decision I have taken."
There normally is a cooling off period before senior politicians take jobs in the private sector after leaving office.
To take a job with such close links to Banif (when she was fully aware of its financial state all along but failed to tell parliament,) within four months of leaving and while still an MP is provocative and puts her in a bad light, but hell, the money's good at around 50,000 sterling a year and more than her clearly inadequate pay as a MP of around 3,500 euros a month.
Former Finance Minister, Manuela Ferreira Leite, said she doubts that any ethics committee would approve of this situation.
Albuquerque already has written to an ethics committee to offer her “full availability and interest in providing this Sub-committee with all the information perceived as relevant."
