IL wants to hear from the TAP inquiry commission Minister Fernando Medina, former governors Pedro Nuno Santos, João Leão, Mário Centeno and Alexandra Reis, as well as the company’s CEO and former administrator Diogo Lacerda Machado.
According to information released today to Lusa, the party intends to hear three dozen personalities in the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the political supervision of the management of TAP, considering that, when it comes to a “company that is controlled by the Portuguese State and whose operations represent a cost of relevant opportunity in the Portuguese economy, it is especially important to ensure that everything is being conducted in a transparent and fair manner”.
Among the list of these hearings is, of course, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, as well as his predecessors in office João Leão and Mário Centeno.
The former Secretary of State for the Treasury Alexandra Reis – whose compensation paid at the time of leaving TAP is at the origin of all this controversy – is also in the IL’s requests, as well as the president of the CMVM, Luís Laginha de Sousa.
Of former rulers, the IL also wants the former Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Pedro Nuno Santos and the former Secretaries of State Hugo Santos Mendes and Miguel Cruz on the inquiry commission.
João Nunes Mendes, who is currently Secretary of State for Finance, IL wants to hear in the commission of inquiry because he was Secretary of State for Finance for João Leão and Treasury for Fernando Medina. Another of the liberals’ requests is Maria Antónia Barbosa de Araújo, former head of the cabinet of the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing.
Among the names to be heard is also Diogo Lacerda Machado, former non-executive director of TAP, and former shareholders Humberto Pedrosa and David Neeleman. Which may raise another question that is outside of this commission of inquiry: the way in which the company was privatized in 2015.
From TAP, the liberals intend to see the CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener, the current and former chairman of the airline, Manuel Beja and Miguel Frasquilho, respectively, the current and former financial administrator, Gonçalo Pires and Raffael Quintas, in parliament.
The former CEO of the airline Ramiro Sequeira and Antonoaldo Neves and the various unions related to the company’s activity also make up this list of auditions, which are joined by the auditors of TAP and those responsible for DGComp with the monitoring of the restructuring plan.
On the 3rd of February, BE’s proposal to set up a commission of inquiry for the political supervision of the management of TAP, with a duration of 90 days, was approved in parliament, with the abstention of the PS and PCP and the votes in favor of the remaining parties.
The text approved with no votes against establishes a parliamentary commission of inquiry “under the political supervision of the management of TAP” that focuses in particular between 2020 and 2022, investigating the entry and exit of former ruler Alexandra Reis and the responsibilities of guardianship in the decisions taken.
The parliamentary inquiry into TAP is chaired by socialist Jorge Seguro Sanches, who will have PSD deputy Paulo Rios de Oliveira as 1st vice-president and Chega Filipe Melo as 2nd vice-president.