PS deputy António Lacerda Sales will replace socialist Carlos Pereira as an effective member of the TAP inquiry committee, the party’s parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias announced on Wednesday.
Last week, the then PS Coordinator on the TAP Commission of Inquiry, Carlos Pereira, announced that he would leave that parliamentary body to give it the “necessary rest”, ending what he described as a “climate of suspicion “, after a news of alleged favoritism from Correio da Manhã.
The party chairman of the PS said in statements to journalists on Wednesday that Carlos Pereira will hold the meeting of the investigative committee on Wednesday afternoon, but will deliver his letter of departure later.
António Lacerda Sales, former Deputy Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Health, will replace Carlos Pereira and thus join the TAP Commission of Inquiry, added Eurico Brilhante Dias.
Last week, a PS parliamentary source announced that Socialist deputy Bruno Aragão will be the new party coordinator in TAP’s investigative committee, replacing Carlos Pereira in this position.
On Thursday evening, Carlos Pereira announced that he would resign from all positions in this parliamentary body, following news of alleged favoritism from Correio da Manhã.
In a press conference the next day, Carlos Pereira stressed that he had made this decision to give the Commission of Inquiry the “needed rest” and to end an “atmosphere of suspicion”.
The newspaper Correio da Manhã reported an alleged cancellation of part (66 thousand euros) of a debt owed by Carlos Pereira as guarantor of a company that went bankrupt in 2015.
The PS deputy defended that “it is incorrect that there was a cancellation” of the debt, and also rejected any favoritism or incompatibility for his participation in the Commission of Inquiry into Caixa Geral de Depósitos, between 2016 and 2017.
Carlos Pereira also rejected that he had decided to leave because of anticipating an unfavorable opinion from the parliamentary transparency committee over his participation in a meeting with government advisers and TAP’s executive chairman on the eve of a parliamentary hearing.
Source: DN
