The opposition’s expectation was fully fulfilled, according to which the preliminary report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to TAP, prepared by PS deputy Ana Paula Bernardo, would not contain any hint of censorship on the government’s actions in the episode that led to the case: the dismissal of Alexandra Reis as director of the company – moving months later to the presidency of another public company, NAV – with compensation of half a million euros.
The document does not contain a word of disapproval against former minister Pedro Nuno Santos. As for his successor in the Infrastructure portfolio, João Galamba, he refrains from commenting on the case that led to the intervention of the SIS (see opposite page), saying that this is the responsibility of the Public Prosecution Service.
What is now foreseen until the next 13th, when the final vote on the document takes place at the CPI – and the PS has a majority to approve it without major concessions – is an intense firefight from the opposition trying to get the socialists to force to accept changes to the document. But it is unlikely that this will happen.
Following the already very old script of these occasions, PSD and Chega announced that they will present alternative conclusions.
Luís Montenegro, president of the PSD, was particularly bold, classifying the document as “a democratic disgrace and without any value”, its content was “strictly socialist”, and did not reflect what happened in committee. Therefore it is a “factious, biased” document and “an attempt to whitewash the government’s responsibilities”. Montenegro also took the opportunity to shoot directly at the prime minister, who “has a lot this strategy: until now he didn’t speak because the committee was working, now it’s because it’s not the final conclusions. say it never need to talk, because everything is fine.”
André Ventura promised that his party would propose a “major structural change” to the document so that it would be “able to identify those responsible, to create a narrative of the facts as they happened and, above all, that it is in accordance is with the law.” and reflects what has been said and analyzed by the Commission of Inquiry”.
The Liberal Initiative, on the other hand, chose a different route: it will not submit a proposal to amend the document. “We don’t participate in farces,” said the party chairman.
On the left, the PCP, through MEP Bruno Dias, believed that the document “without surprises” represented a way to “justify and defend the privatization of TAP”.
BE, on the other hand, said, through Pedro Filipe Soares, that the report “is not much different from what it would have written if it had been written by João Galamba or the Prime Minister, thus removing a relevant part of the events that took place in the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry “. The blockers, he added, will propose amendments and, if they are not included, will provide an explanation of vote that will later be sent to the prosecution.
António Costa, for his part, remained in line with what he followed from the start: “I look forward to the final conclusions of the report to find out if there are any other political consequences that can be drawn.”
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
government did not interfere
The preliminary report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) concludes that there is no evidence of political interference in the company’s management and highlights the negative impact of the restructuring plan on employees. These are two of the central lines of the report proposal presented this Wednesday at a press conference by the author of the final report project, PS deputy Ana Paula Bernardo. According to the deputy rapporteur, “there were no materially relevant situations indicating a practice of interference in the day-to-day management of the company by the regulator”, ie by the Ministries of Finance and Infrastructure.
The affairs of Alexandra Reis (I)
The report concluded that there was no connection between Alexandra Reis’s departure from TAP’s board, with a compensation of half a million euros approved by the then Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, and her appointment a few weeks later, by the the same minister, as chairman of NAV. “There is no evidence of any connection between TAP’s departure and the invitation and respective appointment to NAV,” the preliminary report reads. According to the rapporteur, “all statements on this issue, such as [do ex-secretário de Estado das Infraestruturas] Hugo Mendes, [a ex-presidente executiva da TAP] Christine Ourmières-Widener and Alexandra Reis themselves point out the lack of knowledge of such a possibility, when they resigned from TAP “for this choice,” the document says, regarding the departure of Alexandra Reis from TAP’s administration and appointment as president of NAV (public limited company that manages the airspace). The report also points out that “there was no pressure or political intervention on the portion of NAV’s tutelage, Alexandra Reis has denied any involvement by the government in the day-to-day running of the company during the five months she was in office.
The Affairs of Alexandra Reis (II)
On the process of TAP’s Alexandra Reis leaving, the draft final report says that “it began with the exclusive will and initiative of Christine Ourmières-Widener [na altura CEO da TAP]”, which was “fully managed by her and only disclosed to all members of the Board of Directors at the last minute and after the negotiation process had been completed.” of Alexandra Reis and that “the manner in which the process of termination of functions was carried out – the negotiations (proposal and counter-proposal), the grounds and wording of the agreement, the calculation of the amount of the compensation – are not in accordance with the legal provisions, namely the Statute of Public Manager on which all TAP directors were, and are still, subject”. part of the former administrator, in about 10 days. noticed by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and “the law firms hired by the two parties have prepared a proposal for an agreement on the termination of the functions of a director of a public company in violation of the statute of the public manager”. This chapter omits that Alexandra Reis’s irregular form of dismissal was approved by the government, through the then Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos . Regarding the statement sent by TAP to the Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM) on February 4, 2022, reporting the “dismissal of a member of the Board of Directors”, but without referring to the compensation paid to Alexandra Reis has been awarded, it only states that there is evidence that the company’s legal department is involved in the process. Again omitting that this statement was previously approved by Pedro Nuno Santos. What it says is that the former Minister of Infrastructure and the former Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Mendes, “assumed their political responsibilities in managing this process, having submitted their resignations on December 28, 2022”.
SIS intervention is a matter for the Member of Parliament
The author of the draft final report says the issue of the SIS’s intervention to recover a laptop computer for Frederico Pinheiro, a deputy who had fired Infrastructure Minister João Galamba hours earlier, should be a matter for the public Ministry and not of the CPI. “I have tried to answer point by point to the sub-paragraphs of our mandate [de deputados]omitting what does not concern the object of TAP and – in other situations – what is not the competence of a commission of inquiry in terms of conclusions,” the socialist deputy said at a press conference on Wednesday.
some recommendations
The government should improve the document classification process and the link between financial and sectoral guardianship, Ana Paula Bernardo recommends. At the end of the document, the deputy rapporteur lists a series of recommendations aimed at companies, the government and also on the work of the parliamentary committees of inquiry. One of the six recommendations to the government is to “improve document classification processes (and related document management processes), ensure that documentation is appropriately classified, processed in government offices and between them and appropriately classified companies and , if applicable, with the required document security safeguards”.
Source: DN
