Lisbon (EFE)
The Minister of Finance, the socialist Fernando Medina, said at a press conference that it is necessary to “turn the page” in the management of the company and announced the dismissal of the CEO of TAP, Christine Ourmière-Widener, and the president of the council of administration, Manuel Beja.
The president of the SATA group – airlines of the Azores archipelago, Luís Rodrigues, will assume the functions of both positions.
This decision comes as a result of compensation of half a million euros paid to former administrator Alexandra Reis when she left the airline in February 2022.
Reis was appointed Secretary of State for the Treasury months later and the controversy generated by the compensation and her new position ended in a crisis for the Socialist Government and her resignation and that of the Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos.
The report concludes the “nullity” of the agreement between TAP and Reis
The General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) concluded, in a report made public this Monday, the “nullity” of the agreement between TAP and Reis and that the airline has the right to claim the return of most (about 450,000 euros) of the compensation that it was paid, reported Medina.
The IGF also detected “serious deficiencies” in the relationship between the TAP administration and the State, as the sole shareholder of the airline, and recommended that its performance be “evaluated”, which led the Executive to decide the dismissal of the two maximum managers of the company.
The minister pointed out that they will not be entitled to receive any compensation, since it is considered a “fair” dismissal, although he recalled that Ourmière-Widener and Beja can appeal the decision in court.
The rest of the administration, at least for now, will remain in office.
The new leader of TAP will not receive any bonus for the exercise of his duties, as was provided for the previous CEO.
TAP is owned by the Portuguese State, which currently holds 100% of the capital after increasing its position to save it after the damage suffered by the pandemic, and the airline is under a restructuring plan.
The Portuguese government plans to launch the company’s reprivatization process shortly, for which the Spanish-British group IAG – parent company of Iberia, British Airways and Vueling -, Air France and Lufthansa have already expressed interest.