Christine Urmier-Widener accuses IGF of ‘discriminatory behavior’

Rehabilitated TAP Executive President (CEO) Christine Urmier-Widener accused the General Financial Inspectorate (IGF) of “discriminatory conduct” in an audit of the process that led to Alexandra Reis’s compensation and threatened to withdraw “legal consequences”.

In her contradiction to a report released this Monday, the manager expressed “bewilderment to find that, unfortunately, she was the only person directly involved” in this process “who was not heard in person before the IGF.”

“This discriminatory behavior on the part of the IGF has been duly recorded and all legal consequences will be removed in due course,” the document says.

In her rationale for contradicting the IGF’s findings, Christine Urmier-Widener stated that her personal liability “for committing the alleged financial crimes does not exist or would be considered legally immaterial”.

According to the manager, “the solution of this issue was entrusted to a well-known law firm, which at that time already advised TAR on labor law issues”, SRS.

Christine Urmier-Widener noted that at the time, “TAP’s legal director was out of service on maternity leave” as he was informed that there was no in-house lawyer “with the profile and skills” to manage the process.

“It should be noted from the outset that the defendant [Christine Ourmières-Widener] is not Portuguese and does not speak Portuguese,” he stressed, noting that “he is not a lawyer by training and has no legal knowledge or experience in managing public sector companies in Portugal.”

The manager also said that “the case was entrusted from the outset to TAP’s external legal advisors, who handled the entire negotiation process with legal advisors” to Alexandra Reis of Morais Leitão as interlocutors.

Christine Hourmière-Widener assured that it was only “information about the amounts claimed and the opportunity for negotiation that they had”, information that she said she passed on to the then Department of Infrastructure and Housing through the then Secretary of State for Infrastructure. Hugo Mendez, but with the knowledge of the then Minister Pedro Nuno Santos.

“The legal decision actually made did not go through the defendant and she was never warned of any particular risk that it might entail,” he stressed, stating that “with bewilderment” he found that he “recently faced with doubts” regarding the legality of the judgment and payment to Alexandra Reis.

Christine Urmier-Widener emphasized that she “doesn’t understand” that the issues surrounding the decision were not brought to her by either the lawyers involved or the government during the negotiation process.

“In particular, it was known to all those involved, for example, that engineer Alexandra Reis had not completed 12 months of her current mandate, which, in the light of the legal framework recommended in the draft report, would allow her to terminate her functions without paying any compensation”, with the exception of “labor relations that it maintained and which were then suspended.

Christine Urmier-Widener ignores “how could it be possible that no one had warned of this possibility”, ensuring that information received from external consultants indicated that a global compensation payment of 500 thousand euros “would be a good decision ”, which is “about two-thirds” of the amount originally requested by Alexandra Reis.

According to the manager, the custodial instructions were to reduce the initial cost by ensuring that the ministry was “always up to date with the negotiations”, including the amount to be paid, noting that it had signed the agreement “in good faith” and that it was “in the best interest of TAP”. “.

Christine Urmier-Widener also said she was “not responsible” for the lapses in dealings with the Treasury Department, noting that the Department of Infrastructure was informed and gave “explicit consent” to the agreement.

The CEO of TAP was exonerated today by the government, which released the findings of the IGF audit that the agreement was invalid and that the compensation should be returned.