PRINCIPLE OF IMPARTIALITY

» Concept

The principle of impartiality imposes that Public Administration acts in an impartial and equidistant way with regard to the interests that are in confrontation or that are questioned as a result of its activity; the Administration shall pursue only the public interest and be abstained from taking into account other interests, of any natural person or legal entity and of any kind whatever

The impartiality of Public Administration is sustained by the legal regime of impediments and suspicions that imposes to public employees the duty of abstaining from participating in a procedure, or decide it, when they shall have a direct or indirect interest therein or when circumstances occur in which one may be doubtful as to the integrity of its conduct; on the other hand it is also sustained by norms that materialise the principle of transparency especially in what concerns the right to justification of decisions, the right to procedural information and to the access to registers and administrative records

» Constitution of the Portuguese Republic

Article 266, no.2

Administrative bodies and agents shall be subject to the Constitution and the law, and in the performance of their functions shall act with respect for the principles of equality, proportionality, justice, impartiality and good faith

» Code of Administrative Procedure

Article 6

The Public Administration in the exercise of its activity shall treat all those with whom it enters into relations in a just and impartial manner