PCP Secretary General Paulo Raimundo said in Setúbal on Tuesday that the privatization of TAP is “an economic crime” following the revelation of the finance minister that the process will soon go to the Council of Ministers.
We are completely against this idea [da privatização da TAP]. It is a mistake that, if it occurs, will be an economic crime. And we will do everything we can to contradict this idea,” said Paulo Raimundo.
“TAP should be a public company that meets the needs of the country, but a public company with public management criteria. And not a public company with private management criteria. It was these private management criteria that enabled this national commotion – sorry about the term – about the 500,000 euros in compensation, about the I don’t know how many millions of euros in bonuses, about the previous compensations, which are not yet known,” the communist leader added.
Paulo Raimundo, who spoke to journalists during a visit to the Associação Cristiano da Mocidade (ACM) of Setúbal, a private social solidarity institution (IPSS) that supports about 200 young people and where he was a cultural animator when he was young , also recalled that TAP’s privatization announcement is already 20 years old.
“We’ve been doing this for 20 years. For 20 years a publicly traded company like TAP – which is simply the largest national exporter and one of the most important strategic companies in the country – has had private management criteria for exactly this purpose. [privatização]” emphasized Paulo Raimundo.
Asked about the prosecution’s investigation into suspected corruption in the purchase of TAP aircraft by the company’s previous administrations, Paulo Raimundo said that if the TAP Commission of Inquiry had a broader scope, as the PCP defended, it could also help answer this question.
“We proposed to extend the Commission of Inquiry to the entire privatization process. There were people who thought it was not worth it,” says Paulo Raimundo, who regrets that BE and PS made this possibility unfeasible.
Source: DN
