The president of the republic defended this Saturday that the finance minister, Fernando Medina, should consider the consequences of the conclusions of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on the compensation paid to former secretary of state Alexandra Reis.
“If the Minister of Finance has requested it, the Minister of Finance will have to weigh up the consequences of the report precisely. We will wait and see.”he replied when asked by journalists whether this case could have further political consequences.
SIC Notícias brought up on Friday evening that the draft opinion of the Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) revealed irregularities in the process by which TAP paid compensation of 500 thousand euros to the former administrator and former secretary of state for finance, Alexandra Reis.
On arrival at the 140th anniversary ceremony of the Association for Instruction and Benevolence “A Voz do Operário”, in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he had “difficulty seeing precisely the contours of that solution found in terms of, in quotes, compensation, because it was a situation of leaving on your own foot, not the forced, unilateral termination of an agreement”.
The President of the Republic pointed out that “the form found was a mixed form, which was not compensation for the termination of a contract, nor was it exactly what could be justified by previous rights, difficult to explain”.
“I always understood that it was difficult to understand, and if the Inspectorate General of Finance – whom I know well, also because I was an employee of the Inspectorate General of Finance at the beginning of my activity as a lawyer in civil stand service – which is very strict, understand that in fact there are things that are not easy to explain, it is worth looking at it and see what was not well explainedhe defended.
When asked if Alexandra Reis should pay back the compensation money, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said: “I don’t know, I only know the specific case”.
“I don’t even know the opinion, but I’m basing it on what I’ve read, what I’ve heard. It’s worth thinking about whether there is in fact this statement from the IGF and drawing the lessons from what the IGF will have understood,” the head of state insisted.
Lusa asked the IGF and the Ministry of Finance for clarification on the information from SIC Notícias, but received no response.
TAP’s official source, contacted by Lusa, said only that “this is an ongoing process” and that the airline will “respect all its conclusions”.
Source: DN
