A primer on what should (and
should not) be listed in the IICT President’s diary
Last updated
This question was debated at the 199th management
meeting on July 5. I had included a couple of references to meetings at PSD headquarters
with visiting German personalities which the Left Bloc party found “strange at
a minimum”. Two newspapers, Diario
de Notícias (3 July) and Publico
(July 4) mentioned the intention to ask this to the Minister of Science and
Technology but a message from an anonymous “friend” (amigobm@hotmail.com) received in the
general mailbox of IICT (iict@iict.pt) on
July 9 gave the link
with a title suggesting an “abusive use of the website” (Soeiro contesta
utilização abusiva do sítio web do Instituto de Investigação Científica
Tropical) where there were many activities without great relationship to the
research developed at the institute (“abundam
actividades que não parecem ter grande relação com a investigação desenvolvida
naquele instituto (ver a hiperligação: http://www2.iict.pt/?idc=17). Entre várias conferências de economia e encontros
politicos destacam-se, por exemplo no mês de Junho, a “Reunião com Fundação
Konrad Adenauer, Sede do PSD, Lisboa”, no dia 29 de Junho de 2010, ou a
“Reunião com Dr. Karl Lamers, Presidente da Associaçao do Tratado do Atlântico,
sede do PSD, Lisboa”, no dia 23 de Junho de 2010”.
Note the example found
in the above link is a forthcoming NBER meeting
in
The management decision (bestranha, approved in the 200th meeting and available in full at the IICT website under meetings) was to envision a broader definition of personal and social activities to include those of a political nature even if they have indirect relevance to the mission of IICT.
The motivation to avoid polemics with a party which repeatedly questioned the integrity of the IICT President in 2004 and 2005 (as documented in the IICT website archives) should not encroach on the principle of transparency and flexible management which is essential in research for development, and is evident in the reference (Público July 10) of the opinion of the international affairs committee of PSD on the accession of Equatorial Guinea to CPLP.