Former Infrastructure and Housing Minister Pedro Nuno Santos confirmed this Friday that he had given “political approval” for Alexandra Reis’ departure from TAP, adding that he had been informed “of the final value of the agreement” between the parties.
According to SICNotícias and Expresso, Pedro Nuno Santos’ consent was given informally via WhatsApp.
In a public statement, Pedro Nuno Santos explained that since his resignation on December 28, he has “rebuilt the bond of time” upon the departure of Alexandra Reis from the Portuguese airline, with compensation of 500 thousand euros.
“The importance of reconstructing this time frame was reinforced by the hearing of the CEO of TAP in Parliament and the explicit reference to a written authorization from the Secretary of State. [das Infraestruturas]Hugo Mendes,” emphasized Pedro Nuno Santos.
“From the additional analysis to the informal communication, a political consent has effectively been written by the Secretary of State to the CEO of TAP,” the socialist continues.
Pedro Nuno Santos also says that he was informed of the compensation amount: “Yesterday in this reconstitution process [19 de janeiro de 2023]by me, an earlier message from my then Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State, of which none of the three had the memory, informing me of the final value of the agreement reached by the parties”.
“In that communication they tell me that it is the belief of the two, given the recommendation of the CEO of TAP and her team of lawyers and the information they received from them, that it was not possible to determine the number of damages” said the former minister.
Still on the aforementioned communication, Pedro Nuno Santos refers that he was asked for “political authorization to close the process” and adds that “it was given”.
The former minister who held TAP’s portfolio stressed that at the date of his resignation and after analyzing “all institutional communications, including emails, between TAP and the Ministry of Infrastructure (…) no communications had been identified aimed to the Minister, nor any reply document from the Ministry containing any kind of authorization”.
“With my resignation I have withdrawn the political consequence, when, with the information I had in mind, I believed that I should take political responsibility for this process. Now that I have identified this new information, I think it for the sake of transparency, my duty is this public clarification,” emphasized Pedro Nuno Santos.
Read the statement in full:
Public clarification:
1. From the day I submitted my resignation, for a full understanding of the facts, as well as all elements sent to me or known to me about the termination process of Eng.ª Alexandra Reis at TAP – which happened almost a year ago – that I have tried to rebuild the bond of time, more specifically with regard to non-institutional communication.
2. On the date of my resignation, December 28, 2022, we analyzed all institutional communications, including emails, between TAP and the Ministry of Infrastructure, and no communications addressed to the Minister were identified, nor any response document from the Ministry , which contains some kind of authorization.
3. The importance of reconstructing this tape of time was reinforced by the hearing of the CEO of TAP in Parliament and the explicit reference to a written authorization from Secretary of State Hugo Mendes.
4. From the additional analysis to the informal communication, there is effectively written political consent from the Secretary of State to the CEO of TAP.
5. In the course of this reconstitution process, I found yesterday (January 19, 2023) an earlier message from my then Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State, none of which had memory, informing me of the end of the agreement reached by the parties.
6. In that communication, they tell me that it is their belief, given the recommendation of the CEO of TAP and its team of lawyers and the information they received from them, that it was not possible to further increase the amount of the compensation to lower.
7. What was asked of me in that communication was political approval to close the process, and I received it.
8. With my resignation I withdrew the political ramifications when, with the information I had in my mind, I believed that I should assume political responsibility for this process. Now that this new information has been identified, I consider it my duty to make this clarification public for the sake of transparency.
Source: DN
