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Less than a month after his appointment, the Secretary of State for Treasury, Joaquim Pais Jorge, resigned on August 7, amid revelations about his involvement in a bid to cook public accounts, during his tenure as a director of the Portuguese subsidiary of Citibank (1990-2009).
In 2005, he is alleged to have participated in discussions with members of the previous socialist government led by José Sócrates, in which the bank proposed to provide the state with derivatives contracts to obscure the extent of its public spending deficit.
Público reports that Pais Jorge insists that the documents that provide the basis for the allegations have been falsified, a claim that has prompted Lisbon prosecutors to launch an official investigation.
After the departure of Finance Minister Vítor Gaspar and Foreign Minister Paulo Portas at the beginning of July, Joaquim Pais Jorge’s decision to step down brings the total number of resignations from Pedro Passos Coelho’s government to three in a little over a month.
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