The Deputy Minister of State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, stated this Monday, November 3, that administrative and tax justice is “a national shame”, considering that Portugal has the “slowest decision times in Europe”.
“Administrative and tax justice (…) is today a national shame, we have decision times that are the slowest in all of Europe and this is unacceptable”, said the government official in a joint hearing in the parliamentary committees on State Reform and Local Power and Budget, Finance and Public Administration, within the scope of the specialized assessment of the State Budget law proposal for 2026 (OE2026).
Gonçalo Matias once again referred to the Court of Auditors, saying it was not possible to “have a principle of trust and then not have functioning courts”, saying that the current model “has no parallel”.
“It was created in other times [Tribunal de Contas] by Professor Sousa Franco, but he himself recognized at the time that it was a model that needed revision. Well, it’s been almost 40 years and there has been no review, there has been no adaptation to modern times”, he added.
The minister also reiterated that the Government’s proposal “is not to reduce guarantees, it is not to reduce supervision”, asserting that the objective is to “increase supervision, it is to increase guarantees” […] “at the appropriate time, which is the moment after the decision is made”.
“That’s what a court does, it monitors the legality of acts, it doesn’t replace those who have to make political decisions”, stated Gonçalo Matias.