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The news came by letter and mixed, on the same page, the call for a “funeral” and, immediately after, lunch. At the end of last week, the Board of Directors of the Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral communicated to the members of the (now deceased) General advice the “immediate” termination of this body, which supervised the activity of the Board of Directors. Questioned by the Observer, an official source affirms that “the extinction of the General Council is not the result, in any case, of a decision contrary to the law” and underlines that it was a decision adopted under the new statutes that it says were approved ” definitely ”by guardianship (General Directorate of Social Security). But a group of associates who oppose the current administration has many doubts about this “final” approval of the statutes, talks of “retaliation” and argues that the mutual fund will be left without this control body at a delicate moment in its history. . The mutualist responds that, until a new body is chosen, this inspection is carried out by the general meeting.
These associates correspond in large part to those who recently summoned journalists to launch harsh criticisms of the current administration, headed by Virgílio Lima, who “inherited” the presidency of Tomás Correia. The group includes some members of the defunct General Council, figures “misaligned” with the administration since the time of Tomás Correia, as well as members of concurrent lists in the last electoral acts. The first were surprised at the end of last week with the information, transmitted by the board of directors, who would no longer have to participate in the meeting that was scheduled for this November 19 because the organization had become extinct, but were called to a “Farewell session, followed by lunch.”This Friday, November 20.
Figures like Eugénio Rosa, among several others, immediately rebelled against this decision to extinguish the General Council when there have been no elections for the future “Assembly of Representatives”, a plural body that, in practice, would assume the essential management control functions that the General Council has always had. This body consisted of 23 members, 11 nominated by inheritance and 12 nominated by associates, it included different names such as the former Minister of Health. Maria de Belém Roseira, the former deputy governor of the Bank of Portugal João Costa Pinto, the leader of the workers committee Carlos Areal and the former chief of staff of Guterres and Socrates Luis Patrão (the full list is still on the mutualist’s website, here).
The Assembly of Representatives will have 30 members, also representatives of the different “sensitivities” that exist in the largest Portuguese mutual, with around 600 thousand members. But the official source of the mutual fund, contacted by the Observer, considers that “the General Council is not replaced by the Assembly of RepresentativesAnd that they are two bodies that “are not confused in their nature.”
Each of these bodies has, under the new legal framework, absolutely different powers and although the Assembly of Representatives ‘assumes’ a large part of the powers that until now had been the responsibility of the General Council, the two bodies are not confused in their nature . In effect, these two bodies are provided for autonomously in the Code of Mutual Associations (CAM), and may coexist if the option of the institution is so in the respective Statutes, which does not happen, by decision of the associates, in the case of the MGAM Statutes now. approved ”, says the official source of the investment fund Montepio Geral.
From the outset, a question posed by opponents of the current administration is how it is said that the statutes were permanently registered when there is nothing on the website of the General Directorate of Social Security or on the Justice Portal, as it should be. This is what he states, in conversation with the Observer, Nuno Cunha Rolo, a jurist and partner of Montepio who, in the past, was an electoral representative of one of the lists in competition against the “institutional” list headed by Tomás Correia. This although on the website of the mutual these statutes have been available for several days, being given as “final”.
And more: as it is read in the letter sent to the members of the General Council, “through communication from email, dated October 30, informed the General Directorate of Social Security that it had registered, in definitive terms, the Statutes of Montepio Geral, however, in relation to them, a restricted set of modifications to be introduced at the time ” . “How can there be definitive registration yes there is still ‘changes’ To do? The law is very clear, or there is a definitive record or there is a provisional“, Underlines Nuno Cunha Rolo, who this Thursday sent an official request to the General Directorate of Social Security to request information on this registry on which no one has publicly commented on more than the objective (the mutual).
The Observer contacted the press office of the guardianship – the Ministry of Labor and Social Security – this Wednesday morning, insisting again this Thursday, but without obtaining any clarification until the publication of this news.
Until elections are held for this Assembly of Representatives – and there is no announcement in this regard – the Mutualista Montepio will remain without plural supervision at a time when the financial situation of the mutualista is increasingly precarious and there is open talk of a plan of public intervention. , which the current administration continues to discard completely. Even if an electoral process for this new body were to start today, it would always be several months before taking office, given the set of deadlines set in a process like this (and, with the current administration’s mandate ending at the end of 2021, any Assembly of Representatives of this type would end up in office for only a few months, since the Board of Directors would be renewed at the same time).
However, when questioning the official source of the mutual fund, he emphasizes that this supervisory role can be performed by the general board of mutual funds, a body that does not have the same nature, that meets much less frequently and that generally only manages to join. 200 and 300 collaborators in each initiative (mostly group employees). But, “According to the law, while the Assembly of Representatives is not elected, its powers are exercised by the General Assembly“, The mutualist emphasizes.
This group of opponents of the current administration, which also includes names like Fernando Ribeiro Mendes (former Secretary of State for Social Security and candidate against Tomás Correia), João Proença (former UGT leader) and Pedro Corte Real (university professor), considers that there is a disregard for the law because it creates “a vacuum” between the extinction of the General Council and the election of the Assembly of Representatives. And, to support this point of view, let us remember, for example, point 3 of article 4 of the Code of Mutual Associations:
Article 4 Point 3 – Until elections are held The provisions relating to the composition, attributions and operating rules of said bodies provided for in the Mutualities Code, approved by Decree-Law No. 72/90, of March 3, remain in force.
The mutualist responds, questioned by the Observer, that this criterion has already been met because “elections have already been held after the CAM came into force ”, That is to say, a reference to the elections at the end of 2018 that re-elected Tomás Correia -although without the usual absolute majority- and which happened a few months after the new code came into force, which at that time was in a period of transition.
Therefore, given that the CAM is fully in force (provided for in articles 4º 1 and 5º 1 and 3 of DL 59/2018, of August 2) and with the registration and entry into force of a Statutory Text that does not provide the existence of a General Council (at the current date, even if it existed, it could not maintain the powers attributed to it by the revoked statutes) the General Assembly opted for its extinction.
Now this is an argument that does not work with opponents. “There have already been elections, it is true ” but there were no elections for all the organs (administration, prosecutor and assembly of representatives), says Nuno Cunha Roll. “The spirit of the law is that the legislator did not want there to be a vacuum supervisory body“He adds. And more: in the decree-law that approves the mutual code, Article 75 reads, very clearly, the following:
Article 75
Associative bodies
1 – The bodies of the mutuals are:
a) The general meeting;
b) The board of directors;
c) The tax council.
2.- Except in the case of groupings of associations, the statutes may provide for the existence of an assembly of representatives or a general council, with the powers provided for in this Code, or the existence of other advisory bodies whose powers must respect those reserved. by the law. for the organs referred to in the previous number.
3 – Mutual associations with 100,000 or more members must have, in addition to the bodies mentioned in paragraph 1, an assembly of representatives.
Now, Montepio Geral Associação Mutualista far exceeds this threshold of 100 thousand members and, for the moment, does not have a General Council or an Assembly of Representatives. This shows, in the eyes of Nuno Cunha Rolo, that this decision to extinguish the General Council “appears to be an act of retaliation towards the opposition.” “There is a rush, an agony, in order to get rid of the opposition and the scrutiny he was doing“, What “it is not legal nor is it legitimate“.
To all this, the management of the investment fund responds with a basic argument, which is the approval of the statutes by the General Directorate of Social Security. That is, if the guardianship is approved it is because it makes no sense to talk about illegalities.
This news will be updated with the contribution of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, if it occurs.
