On Monday, Mario Centeno made it clear that TAP’s management issues and payroll and bonus payments have nothing to do with the company’s management model. “While I was a minister, I have no indication that this was due to the lack of control mechanisms,” he explained on Monday to the PTP investigation commission. But he acknowledged that “the issue of TAP, being central to the government’s program and strategic, was not a priority issue for the daily activities of the Ministry of Finance.”
On the other hand, the current governor of Banco de Portugal stated that he did not know anything about the 55 million euros paid by the state to David Neeleman. And when the SDP insisted on this issue, Centeno replied that “nothing happened in the Ministry of Finance while I was minister and president of the Eurogroup and worked in two positions. Not a single strategic decision was made without the presence of the Minister of Finance.” The Atlantic Gateway consortium, owned by David Nieleman and Humberto Pedrosa, won TAP’s privatization, but the state later regained much of the capital, albeit with private management.
Regarding Parpública’s written statements to TAP’s creditor banks, Centeno agreed in 2015 that they obligated the state to exercise the right to buy out TAP and thus keep the debt. But he denied that the letters were illegal state aid. “When I look back at the decisions I made, within the framework in which I made them, all the goals were achieved,” he said.
Author: Thiago Rebelo
Source: CM Jornal
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