The PSD demanded clarification from the Prime Minister on Saturday about an alleged agreement between the government and TAP’s private shareholder in 2017, which would have given businessman David Neeleman 55 million euros on his departure from the company.
In a statement titled “The Secret Agreements of Socialism at TAP,” PSD Vice President Miguel Pinto Luz demanded urgent explanations from António Costa and other former rulers and corporate officials over a news report in Correio da Manhã newspaper.
“We have now found out – according to revelations in the press – that there was a secret agreement in 2017. million euros for the 30-year period set by the PSD/CDS government,” said Miguel Pinto Luz.
The social democratic vice president added that “it was this change that enabled David Neeleman to become the only businessman in the civil aviation sector to earn more than 55 million euros in the period of the pandemic”.
“These are data in need of confirmation and urgent justification and serve to deepen the web of mismanagement, nepotism, lightness and abuse of power that the TAP file has exposed to us,” he demands.
For the PSD vice president, “the seriousness of the facts reinforces the concerns of the PSD, which once again emphasizes the need to listen to the prime minister on a matter of paramount importance to the country”.
“We believe he is the person most responsible for everything that has happened at TAP over the past seven years,” he stressed.
Pinto Luz said the PSD had already requested the parliamentary hearing of former governors Pedro Marques and Miguel Cruz and former TAP administrator Diogo Lacerda Machado and will reinforce the urgency of this explanation in the Economics Committee on Monday.
“Such management error due to an ideological whim has cost the Portuguese taxpayer more than EUR 3.2 billion. Not least, serious and significant damage has been done with an as yet unmeasurable impact on the image and credibility of a important brand that is TAP,” he criticized.
According to Correio da Manhã news, an amendment was made in 2017 to TAP’s initial direct sales agreement in 2015, which stipulated that the $226 million that Atlantic Gateway (consortium consisting of shareholders David Neeleman and Portuguese businessman Humberto Pedrosa) paid in the company was injected should stay with the airline for 30 years.
However, according to the newspaper, in June 2017, the government of António Costa guaranteed Atantic Gateway the right to receive the money before the 30-year deadline, in the event of a blockade or non-compliance of Parpública, which concentrated the shares held by the State in TAP holds.
Source: DN
