João Cardona Gomes Cravinho (born 1936) is a Portuguese politician. He served, among other positions, as member of the

Portuguese Parliament The Assembly of the Republic (Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament ...

(1979–1983, 1985–1989 and 1999–2002), member of the European Parliament (1989–1994), and as the Portuguese Territory Administration Minister between 1995 and 1999.Fabricius, Peter
EU policy on Zim unwise, says SA ambassador.
''IOL.'' December 6, 2005. He is a member of the PS political party. Cravinho has a degree in engineering. In 2004, after the eruption of several

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

scandals involving people and institutions ranging from mayors like

Fátima Felgueiras Maria de Fátima da Cunha Felgueiras Almeida (born April 21, 1954 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a Portuguese politician. She is most known as former mayor of the Felgueiras municipality, in northern Portugal. Personal life Fátima Felgueiras ...

to football clubs (''

Apito Dourado The ''Apito Dourado'' ( en, Golden Whistle) affair is a sports corruption scandal in Portuguese football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (''Polícia Judiciária'') investigators named several football personalities as suspects ...

''), former Minister João Cravinho noted:

The political system has shown little efficiency in fighting corruption, tax evasion, and fraud. The successive governments did not engage themselves in that fight. Why? Because they want to win the elections… This is a fatal error that we should urgently terminate.

In 2006, as a socialist deputy João Cravinho was preparing a new set of proposals in order to improve the legal framework of

crimes, which included the investigation of someone, when that person's assets doesn't match with his/her declaration of income. The proposal was rejected by the

. Shortly after, Cravinho resigned from the parliament and went to England where he had been appointed administrator of the

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focus ...

by the Portuguese Government headed by socialist José Sócrates.

Distinctions

National orders

Grand Cross of the Military Order of Christ (8 June 2005)

References

1936 births Living people Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs MEPs for Portugal 1989–1994 Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Grand Crosses of the Order of Christ (Portugal) Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{Portugal-politician-stub