Court of Auditors President threatens appeal over institutional reform

Filipa Urbano Calvão, President of the Court of Auditors (Tribunal de Contas), has indicated she may appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding a reform of the institution's Organization and Process Law. The reform, approved by the Council of Ministers on April 9, includes provisions that Calvão considers unconstitutional.

If the President of the Republic does not request a preventive review of the law, Calvão stated she might consider not applying certain norms in specific cases to allow for concrete judicial review by the Constitutional Court. The Court of Auditors previously expressed concerns in May that the changes could impact principles of institutional independence and its constitutional mandate.

A central component of the government's proposal is raising the threshold for mandatory prior audit of contracts to 10 million euros, a move the executive claims will eliminate over 90% of current prior approvals. Under the new rules, contracts exceeding 950,000 euros must still be communicated to the Court of Auditors for concurrent and successive oversight, even if exempt from prior approval.