Lisbon, Oct. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The government intends to amend the legislation that requires prior approval from the Court of Auditors, particularly concerning public tenders and licenses, shifting the judges' scrutiny to an “a posteriori” phase of political decisions.
In an interview with the daily newspaper Público, the Deputy Minister for State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, said he wanted "a profound reform (...) the like of which has never been done (...) and won't be done in less than four years".
"There is a series of diagnoses that have been made, even by the Portuguese in general. Just ask people. Nobody is satisfied with the service times. As for the TdC (Court of Auditors), there is a part of the delay in public decision-making - in public procurement and decisions - that depends on the TdC's prior approval," he said.
The minister argued that "the prior review by the TdC should be reduced and the 'a posteriori' review should be increased, because that's what a court should do," so as not to "condition political decisions".
"The government would like everyone's support. What we're doing is a programme to simplify and digitalise the economy and the state. We're trying to simplify the lives of people and companies. Who could be against this? The government has no redundancy programme in public administration," said Gonçalo Matias.
Regarding the “scolding” by the president of Portugal, who recently warned of the danger of "flattening organisations", namely the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the minister refused to comment.
Gonçalo Matias also commented on the changes made to the Legal Regime for Urbanisation and Building (RJUE), considering that "people had a sword over their heads for 10 years, never knowing if their work was going to be destroyed or not" and stressing that "the councils have to do a much faster job of inspection".
Matias also promised to "clean up" the 400 or so advisory bodies identified by the Economic and Social Council (CES).
"We're working on that list. There aren't just 400, there are more. The survey wasn't ready. We have a long legal job ahead of us," he predicted.
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