PS Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos defended on Thursday the operation of former Finance Minister Fernando Medina with Águas de Portugal (AdP), which allowed the state to present public debt below 100% of GDP, with the Socialist stressing that “the State does not take money that does not belong to the State” since the company is public.
“The shareholder is the state, and those who govern the state are the governors, at any given moment they are elected to these functions and make a political choice,” emphasized the leader of the PS, speaking in defense of his former internal opponent.
“There is work that has made the public accounts healthy and balanced,” said the Secretary General, who believed that the “comfortable” budget situation allows the current chief executive “to announce measures that require high budgetary expenditure.”
At stake is the 100 million euros that AdP transferred to the state, which allowed it to present a lower public debt in the 2023 reports.
According to the Observador, former Prime Minister António Costa spoke on the phone with the company’s president, José Furtado, promising compensation for the funds provided.
ENOUGH ASKING Analysis
On Thursday, Chega asked the Audit Office to review the requests for extraordinary dividends filed by AdP and NAV.
NAV DAL 20 MILLION EUROS
NAV paid the state 20 million euros in extraordinary dividends in 2023, but finance even asked the company for 50 million.
PAID MINT
The Mint transferred 10 million euros to the state, but the institute’s president insists there was no “political interference.”
Author: Joao Reis Alves
Source: CM Jornal
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