The State Department launched an investigation into the purchase of TAP aircraft after the involvement of then-infrastructure minister Pedro Nuno Santos and current finance minister Fernando Medina was put forward this Monday.
In a response sent to the Lusa agency regarding alleged suspicions of corruption in the purchase of TAP aircraft by previous administrations of the company, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) reported that “the involvement presented at the time by the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing (Pedro Nuno Santos) and the Minister of Finance (Fernando Medina) summoned an inquiry to the Central Directorate of Investigation and Criminal Affairs (DCIAP).”
However, PGR did not say whether the ongoing investigation into the DCIAP – the government department’s department that investigates the most serious, complex and sophisticated organized crimes – already had suspects or indictees, arguing that the investigation was “under investigation and subject to secrecy.” “. justice.”
In mid-October, the then Minister of Infrastructure announced that TAP management had requested an audit because they suspected they were paying more for planes than competitors, and that the government had forwarded the findings to the prosecutor’s office.
“Administration [da TAP]at some point, I suspected that we would pay for the planes that we pay more than our competitors pay. […] The administration requested an audit, this audit was completed, transferred to the government, and we, faced with doubts about the conclusions of this audit, sent the audit to the state ministry,” Pedro Nuno Santos said at the time in a hearing in the Assembly of the Republic.
The then minister recalled the privatization carried out by the PSD/CDS-PP government, partly canceled in 2015, in which TAP was sold for 10 million euros to “a shareholder who owed the company even more”. It was the private administration, headed by David Neelman, who upgraded the airline’s aircraft fleet.
Author: morning Post This Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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