The infrastructure minister said on Wednesday that the TAP administration has requested an audit because it suspects it is paying more for the planes than competitors and that the government has forwarded the findings to the prosecution.
“The administration [da TAP]suspected at one point that we would pay more for the planes we pay for than competitors were paying. […] The administration requested the audit, this audit was completed, delivered to the government and we, in light of doubts about the conclusions of that audit, have forwarded the audit to the Public Prosecution Service”announced the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, at a hearing in the Assembly of the Republic, at the request of PCP and Chega, on the privatization of TAP, followed by a hearing on the conclusion of public procurement by a company with a participation of more than 10% of the ruler’s father, as requested by the PS.
Pedro Nuno Santos also pointed the finger at the PSD again, accusing it of being a “mere protest party” that offers no solutions because he did not adopt, he said, what it would have done in 2020 when TAP was in trouble, exacerbated by the pandemic.
The minister also recalled the privatization carried out by the PSD/CDS-PP government, partially reversed in 2015, in a deal selling TAP for EUR 10 million to “a shareholder who has pushed the company further into debt”.
Moreover, it was that private administration led by David Neeleman who carried out the renewal of the airline’s aircraft fleet.
The minister reiterated that “there is no somersault” in the government’s stance on the privatization of TAP, as he defended in the PSD-required debate last week.
“All that was always assumed was that we understood that TAP is an airline in a highly consolidated industry, it should not be left alone. The best way to ensure medium and long-term viability is to be part of of a major aviation group”, the ruler stressed.
In response to PSD deputy Paulo Rios de Oliveira, who reported an injection of 270 million euros by the company’s former private shareholder, the Minister of Infrastructure said the injection amounted to 224 million and that the PSD has not yet explained whether “there was in fact a capitalization, or if there was an even greater indebtedness”.
“They promised a capitalization that resulted in no capitalization of the company, on the contrary, it resulted in a debt burden that we are still paying today, apparently – not to be more objective – to pay more for the planes than our competitors”be the ruler.
Paulo Rios de Oliveira also accused the government of failing to tell taxpayers that the €3,200 million was “non-refundable”.
“Have they told the Portuguese, to whom they want to give €125, that they have taken €320 from each?”asked the social-democratic commissioner.
In response, Pedro Nuno Santos believed that the reading of the decisions of the socialist government should be done “in light of the results of the January elections”, which the PS won with an absolute majority.
“When we went to the elections, Mr Paulo Rios, TAP had already intervened and we had already committed them to Brussels to inject EUR 3,200 million into TAP. We went to the elections and we won. […] The political leader of the PSD who supported the deputy during the campaign tried to take advantage of the TAP case several times”emphasized the minister.
Source: DN
