Parliament on Tuesday is debating the PKP’s proposal for a parliamentary inquiry into the PSD/CDS government’s privatization of ANA in 2013, with the party warning of a “heavy responsibility” for those who fail the inquiry.
Speaking to Lusa, PCP MP António Filipe said he hopes that after Tuesday’s debate, “all parliamentary groups will assume their responsibilities and that no one will be held responsible for making this parliamentary investigation impossible.”
“We are talking about something that has scandalously seriously damaged the Portuguese state, national interests, both from a financial point of view and in terms of the terms of control of the Portuguese state over its airport space.” , he emphasized.
The PCP MP stressed that a Government Accountability Office report released in January analyzing the privatization of ANA was “devastating in terms of the impact” of the deal and showed that the original price estimate for ANA was “more than three billion dollars”. euros,” but the sale “was made for just over a third of that amount: 1.127 million.”
“We are talking about enormous damage to the financial interests of the state, in addition to the fact that Vinci’s management of the national airports – given that this concession is for 50 years – is proving disastrous for the public interest, so much so that Lisbon Airport is scandalously increasing airport taxes,” – he adds.
On the other hand, António Filipe also considered it important to clarify “why the dividends for 2012 received by ANA, still a public company, were proposed to Vinci.”
“It is also important to investigate possible conflicts of interest on the part of administrations. It is enough to remember that there was an administration appointed by the state after the decision to privatize, and that Vinci announced his intention to reappoint it, which clearly calls into question his tax exemption and the protection of public interests,” he said.
The deputy recalled that the deal concluded in 2013 was concluded by the PSD/SDS government, in which Pedro Passos Coelho was prime minister, Vítor Gaspar and Álvaro Santos Pereira were ministers of finance and economy, and Sérgio Monteiro was secretary of state. infrastructure, and believed they bore a “heavy responsibility” for the impacts it had.
“And it is important that the Assembly of the Republic also takes responsibility for conducting an investigation into this determination of responsibility. From the very beginning, whoever refuses to carry out this investigation will certainly have something weighing on their conscience regarding such a situation. “, he decreed.
Asked for his response to the PS’s argument that all parliamentary tools should be used to obtain information on an issue before resorting to an “atomic bomb” of parliamentary inquiry – an argument the party used last week to vote down the BU and PAN for the commission to investigate the activities of the Global Media Group – the deputy considered that “this does not make any sense.”
“There have been several parliamentary inquiries in each legislative body. Therefore, if we were talking about the atomic bomb, we would have been blown up dozens of times already,” he replied, emphasizing that the proposed investigation was “fully justified.”
“I am not discounting the proposal for an investigation that was made last week, but objectively we are talking about realities of an incomparable scale: we are talking here about billions of euros, the management of all national airports for 50 years,” he said.
The MP said that “we are faced with a scandal of such magnitude that anyone who refuses to look into this matter will have to explain their position very well and take on this responsibility.”
“Because, as they say, those who are not worth fearing,” he added.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

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