Former Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos acknowledged in TAP’s Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on Thursday that when he invited Alexandra Reis to lead NAV, he had not asked her about the possible need to repay the half-million-euro fee euros that he had received a few months earlier when he left the TAP management.
“I had no idea it was my role to do this,” he said when questioned by deputy Pedro Filipe Soares from BE. “I also did not ask Alexandra Reis whether she had submitted her tax return to the Constitutional Court. That is the responsibility of the administrator,” the former minister replied.
Pedro Nuno Santos acknowledged in committee that the process leading to Alexandra Reis leaving TAP “went wrong”, but at the request of Chega’s André Ventura, he refused to join an apology to the Portuguese. “I did my job in good faith. It didn’t go well. And I took my responsibility by resigning. That’s the ultimate punishment we inflict on ourselves.”
In other words, in allowing the manager to receive that fee, he was acting “in good faith” because what he was told (his Secretary of State Hugo Mendes, who received this information from TAP himself) was that it could not be downloaded plus that amount (and initially Alexandra Reis even asked for 1.5 million). “If I give an amount ok, I respond in good faith. I wish it had gone differently [mas] I cannot punish myself if I acted in good faith.”
Pedro Nuno Santos spent the entire meeting appreciating Alexandra Reis’s professional qualities (“extremely intelligent”, “hard-working”, etc.). At the same time, however, he explained why he accepted (in January 2022) his resignation from TAP’s management at the request of the company’s then CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener: it was to allow her to have “a cohesive team” , something particularly sensitive at a time when TAP was going through a very heavy internal restructuring process. That is, the former minister acknowledged: although he did not know “concrete cases”, he knew that there was “discomfort” between the CEO of TAP and the administrator Alexandra Reis and therefore accepted the departure of the manager, despite acknowledging of her competence (so much so that months later he would invite her to lead NAV, the public company that manages the airspace).
“I’m not looking at the statement [da TAP para a CMVM] as a lie, but as the implementation of a contract, of a legal solution that I did not know and that I did not have to pronounce.”
What happened next is that TAP communicated the change in the company’s management to the CMVM, saying it happened because Alexandra Reis started to embrace new professional projects. Former minister Pedro Nuno Santos knew that this was not the case, but that did not prevent him from giving the okay one more time prior to this message from TAP, now to the stock exchange regulator. Accused by André Ventura of allowing a “factual lie”, Pedro Nuno Santos refused to agree: “I do not look at the statement [da TAP para a CMVM] as a lie, but as the implementation of a contract, of a legal solution that I did not know and that I did not have to pronounce.”
During the meeting, Pedro Nuno Santos was also questioned – first by Bernardo Blanco, of the Liberal Initiative – about the audit (held by the CPI but classified) that will say that since 2019 thirteen directors have left the company with compensation of in a total of 8.5 million euros.
When asked by the deputies – and without receiving an answer – who these administrators actually are, the former minister criticized the fact that the disclosure of this investigation only gave rise to the idea in general terms that there were “13 alexandras journey” after all. As he assured, he is only aware of two directors leaving with compensation: that of Alexandra Reis herself and that of Brazilian manager Antonoaldo Neves (CEO of TAP from 2018 to 2020).
Pedro Nuno Santos also explained why, when he resigned from the government, he did not immediately assume publicly that he had authorized the compensation paid by TAP to Alexandra Reis to leave the company (in her resignation from the government this responsibility was borne by his Secretary of State Hugo Mendes): “On the day we submitted the resignation, I had stabilized the statement, which we remembered”. And then, out of government, he went into “decompression” and “even a period of mourning.” Only weeks later, at home, did he go to look at the messages and realize that the final agreement had come from him, which he immediately revealed in a statement: “I was the one who made the information and the message public,” he underlined.
“I never felt a lack of solidarity from the Prime Minister, the issue did not arise at that level.”
The former minister also assured that he was unaware at the time of the email his Secretary of State Hugo Mendes wrote to the company’s CEO asking him to change the schedule of a commercial flight that the president of the Republic from Maputo to Lisbon. . That emailhe said, was “unfortunate” – as Hugo Mendes himself acknowledged on Wednesday – but, contrary to what António Costa said later, he would not have fired him “on the spot”: “[Hugo Mendes] it’s much more than that email. When I make an assessment, it is about the whole and not about a moment when I was not happy.” Then, questioned about his relationship with Costa, he assured: “I have never felt a lack of solidarity from the Prime Minister, the issue did not arise at that level.” In an apparent revulsion to his successor João Galamba he added: “If I decide to resign, I decide to resign.”
“I worked with him for six years [Frederico Pinheiro]. I evaluate your work very positively. He’s smart, hardworking, respectful.”
Questioned by the deputies, he also – as with Hugo Mendes – made it a point to protect his deputy Frederico Pinheiro: “I have worked with him for six years. I evaluate his work very positively. He is intelligent, hardworking, respectful “.
When Pedro Nuno Santos left the Ministry of Infrastructure, he was replaced by João Galamba and Frederico Pinheiro would remain in the cabinet, starring on April 26, after being acquitted by the minister, in the famous incident involving a SIS agent would go to his house to get a laptop from the office that he brought from the office.
“[A geringonça] it was good while it lasted. It went well for everyone and for the Portuguese people.”
Pedro Nuno absolutely refused to comment on this incident, but admitted that he had two telephone contacts that evening: first, Frederico Pinheiro called him to tell him that he had been acquitted by Galamba; later it was he who called his assistant to “understand what had happened”, already after the intervention of the SIS. However, he has not revealed who told him about the incidents: “I don’t remember.”
At the end, in an altercation with BE deputy Pedro Filipe Soares, he remembered the time of the device with nostalgia. “It was good while it lasted. It was good for everyone and for the Portuguese people.”
Source: DN
