Cabinet chief says he did not ask Galamba for prior permission to contact SIRP

The chief of staff of the Minister of Infrastructure said tonight that she did not ask João Galamba for prior permission to communicate with the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP) on the night of April 26th.

“I didn’t ask permission from the minister before I contacted SIRP,” Eugenia Correia said in a hearing before the TAP commission of inquiry that lasted more than six hours, following a hearing of a similar length in the case, former deputy Frederic Pinheiro.

Joao Galamba’s chief of staff also said she called the secretariat at 9:54 p.m. to ask to call SIRP, moments after the incident involving the departure of a former ministry deputy with an on-call computer.

This audition was marked by several conflicting opinions, despite statements made by Federico Pinheiro several hours earlier in the same room.

When asked about João Galamba’s tone during the call to Frederico Pinheiro in which he fired him, as the former deputy confirmed during the hearing that the minister had said that if he was by his side, he would give him two “blows”, Eugenia Correia said she heard “the minister talking calmly to Federico Pinheiro”, although he did not follow the conversation as a whole because he was also talking on the phone.

Asked by PS MP Bruno Aragao about the computer file of the former MP’s notes taken at the preparatory meeting of the Socialist Parliamentary Group with the former TAP Executive President on the eve of the Economic Commission hearing in January, Eugenia Correia stated that Frederico Pinheiro had refused to hand over the Word file to technician Catia Rosas from the minister’s office .

Regarding the interference with Frederico Pinheiro’s official mobile phone to try to recover the messages exchanged with the former executive president of TAP and which, according to the former deputy, led to an “eclipse” of his messages, Eugenia Correia said that the interference was done with the help of the ex- The deputy was playing on his mobile phone, following the instructions of the computer technician who was next to him.

“Dr. Frederico was sitting at his desk with a mobile phone in his hand, and next to him stood a computer scientist and gave him instructions on how to install a program that will try to restore something that we did not know existed, restore messages that were exchanged with chairman of the TAP executive committee to try to get proof that she was the one who actually asked for the meeting,” he explained.

The person in charge said “scores are worthless because at least they have to be measured by other participants” in the meeting.

“If this meeting had not been recorded, tomorrow I could write a paper that there was such and such. The content must be confirmed or refuted, whatever it may be, because none of those who were at this meeting confirm that it was so. , or also refutes, […] and it was this notification that I left in my office, because I didn’t ask anyone whether it was confirmed or not, ”he said.

Eugenia Correia reiterated that Federico Pinheiro was fired not because of grades, but “for lying to four witnesses”.

When confronted by PSD MP Paulo Ríos de Oliveira about an email he sent to TAP that a press conference to present the 2022 results would not be held after the announcement of the intention to rehabilitate the company’s presidents, the head of the cabinet felt that the order had not been given. the conference not to take place, but the opinion that it should not take place.

Also, when asked about the statement sent to Luza by five members of the Cabinet, including herself, accusing Federico Pinheira of lying in a hearing that has not yet ended, the chief of staff began by saying that she did not read the statement in question and that it was not signed Yes.

Later, after a pause, Eugenia Correia (who prefers the name despite a statement referring to Eugenia Cabaso) said that during the initial interrogation, she realized that it was her fist’s signature and not a reference to her name, explaining that he had already had the opportunity to read it and that he “entirely” subscribed to its content.

At the final stage of the hearing, already in the third round, Eugenia Correia confirmed in response to PSD’s Hugo Carneiro that she had exchanged impressions with Joao Galamba about this request, but not about any conditions or combination of answers.

“As for the interrogation, I did not read the answers, I did not know what questions they would ask me,” he stressed.