In a request sent today to the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, to which the Lusa agency had access, lawyer João Correia alleges that the grounds for the dismissal order of the members of the Board of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) are "vague, generic and merely conclusive" and also damaging to his good name.

The lawyer also requests the annulment of the "clarification order" that requires the members of the Board to remain in office, considering it "illegal and containing, in itself, the practice of a criminal offence", alleging that it is based on rules that are no longer in force.

The Ministry of Labour warned, on 2 May, the dismissed administration of the SCML to remain in office, under penalty of incurring a crime of dereliction of public duties.

According to the former member, the dismissal order of the five members of the Board (4702-C/2024 of 29 April) justifies the termination of duties in the lack of provision of essential elements, namely, "the lack of information to the supervisory authority on the 2023 report and accounts, even if in a provisional version, on the budget execution of the first quarter of 2024, the absence of a response to requests for information and seriously negligent actions that affect the management" of the institution.

The ministry of Maria do Rosário Ramalho also alleges that the leading elements of the SCML did not present any "financial restructuring plan, taking into account the imbalance of accounts between the current structure and capital, since they took office until now".

In the opinion of João Correia, a lawyer in his own right, the reasons for his dismissal lack justification, and therefore requested the Ministry "a certificate, for judicial purposes, in which all, but all, the facts that justified the imputations are recorded".

For the former director of the SCML, "they are not able to discern, not even the causes of the dismissal of each member of the Board", nor "any relation between the motivation adopted and the conduct and responsibilities of each of the targets, since the 'portfolios' did not coincide".

In the request, João Correia invokes his status as a lawyer for 50 years and recalls some positions he held - Secretary of State for Justice, Vice-President of the General Council of the Portuguese Bar Association and member of the Superior Council of the Public Prosecution Service -, warning of "the public damage that may result from such imputations", which are included in the dismissal order.

The ombudsman Ana Jorge and the five remaining members of the Board of the SCML were dismissed "with immediate effect" on 30 April, through an order that justified the decision with "seriously negligent actions" that affected the management of the institution.

After her dismissal, the ombudsman wrote a letter to all SCML employees, in which she accused the Government of having dismissed her in a "rude, arrogant and slanderous way" and in which she stated that she was taken by surprise.

Read Also: Government warns Santa Casa administration: Dereliction of duties is a "crime" (Portuguese version)