The political fight over TAP Air Portugal culminated this Monday evening with the firing, by the Portuguese government, of the state-owned airline’s CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener and its chairman, Manuel Beja.
Such decision was officially announced in a press conference, in a smaller note compared to the main purpose of the announcement — to report on the conclusions of the country’s Inspectorate-General of Finances (IGF) over the case that triggered the political turmoil over TAP.
In the case, which came to public at the end of last year, Alexandra Reis, a manager and board member at TAP, left the company in February 2022 and received a severance payment of around EUR500,000, as first reported by newspaper Correio da Manhã. By December, Reis took a position as the Treasury Secretary.
The government initially denied any illegality in the payment. However, the dire situation of the airline’s finances drew scrutiny towards the airline management. A few days after the news broke, Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos «[took] political responsability» for the case and resigned. While his ministry did not directly owned TAP, Nuno Santos was one of the political architects of the airline’s renationalization during the COVID-19 pandemic.
IGF’s report on Monday declared that the severance agreement was void, suggesting the public management to request Reis to return EUR450,110.26.
In the conference, Finance Minister Fernando Medina confirmed the report was ratified by the governement, which would, in turn, «mandate TAP to take the necessary steps towards the recovery of the unduly paid sums», while «sending the IGF report to the Court of Auditors for the investigation of eventual financial responsibilities of the involved managers».
Medina added that, for the sacking of the CEO and the chairman, there will be «no place for severance payment».
«It was essential to recover this link of trust between the country and the company», the press release added, since «TAP is not any company; it is a special company in the country, given its dimension and economic importance».
With the government signaling its commitment to the company, Infrastructure Minister João Galamba added that he has «full trust that TAP will successfully continue its future sustainability path, which will pass by a privatization of a part of its capital».
The Portuguese government intends to raise TAP’s privatization to the country’s Council of Ministers «soon», Medina said in an event in Madrid also this Monday.
In a statement sent to the Portuguese press and published by Observador, Alexandra Reis said «I cannot […] agree with the IGF report […] which rewrites what happened to give the answer that is probably the easiest», yet one that is «still wrong».
The manager said that the decision to leave the company was unilaterally the CEO’s [Ourmières-Widener], which would, she said, grant her the right to request a severance. She also expressed her «regret [over] the character attacks of which I was a target over the past months».
Reis added that she would, «by [her] own will», return the sum required, «so that there are no doubts outstanding; and as I have said from the start, I do not want to have an euro over which there is the smallest of suspicions».
Meanwhile, Christine Ourmières-Widener, now TAP’s former CEO, also protested the decision, according to a statement published by Diário de Notícias. She accused the IGF of «discriminatory behavior» and threatening «legal consequences».
Finally, former chairman Manuel Beja regetted the decision on a LinkedIn post republished by Jornal de Negócios, albeit in a more amicable tone, claiming he «unsuccessfully tried to avoid Reis’ departure». According to the executive, he continued the process on good faith.
The Portuguese government appointed Luís Silva Rodrigues as both chairman and CEO at TAP, Minister Galamba announced. Rodrigues was, up until now, CEO of Grupo SATA, which manages an airport operator and two airlines in the Azores — SATA Air Açores and Azores Airlines.
SATA Group is wholly owned by the government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, whose Finance Secretary, Duarte Freitas, complained this Tuesday that «we were not consulted, but [rather] informed» by the Portuguese government about the pick.
Freitas confirmed that Rodrigues will not be eligible for a severance payment by SATA.
