Former Secretary of State Alberto Souto admitted this Saturday that he had given instructions to former TAP administrator Lacerda Machado on the company’s 2020 budget, but declined to put political pressure on current management.
“The norm is that once a year, precisely when the budget is approved, the shareholder talks with his representatives and indicates the position that they must convey,” Alberto Souto wrote on his Facebook account, recalling that he gave instructions, “leadership” the company’s budget, at the behest of former infrastructure minister Pedro Nuno Santos.
Two days later, at a meeting of the commission of inquiry into the political oversight of the leadership of TAP, the former administrator admitted that he was under political pressure, Alberto Souto contradicts his version and claims that Lacerda presented “the film in reverse.”
“All publicly traded or state-owned companies” have guidance in policy documents, and “that’s the point of healthy custody,” the former assistant secretary of state for communications wrote in the text.
Public administrators are “present” in these companies “to protect the interests of the state” and, therefore, “even in many cases, the relevant budgets are submitted for approval to the Ministry of Finance.”
For Alberto Souto, quoting Pedro Nuno Santos, “TAP couldn’t have two ministers”, himself and Lacerda Machado, who “didn’t have the humility to accept the orientation of the shareholder who appointed him”.
And testified that the former administrator “threatened to resign, but did not resign.”
On Thursday, former TAP administrator Diogo Lacerda Machado suggested there was political pressure when Secretary of State Alberto Souto de Miranda asked him to vote against the airline’s 2020 budget.
“The budget of a company like TAP is not meant for politics,” the lawyer replied to MP Fatima Fonseca from PS and then Bernardo Blanco from IL, suggesting that the government was putting pressure on the company’s budget to 2020.
Faced with Bernardo Blanco’s insistence, Lacerda Machado claimed that then Secretary of State Alberto Souto de Miranda of Pedro Nuno Santos’ ministerial team had asked him to vote against the budget.
“I said I won’t do it,” Lacerda Machado added, saying he explained to the government that the legitimacy of his decision “follows from the elections in the general assembly,” but if the executive understands this, he will resign. Position.
The former non-executive director also said that the situation “didn’t happen again”.
Lacerda Machado left the TAP administration in April 2021, before his term expired.
According to Expresso, then-infrastructure minister Pedro Nuno Santos and Lacerda Machado “did not agree with each other for months on the company’s strategy,” and António Costa even “stepped in to correct the minister.”
In a text published this Saturday, Alberto Souto recalls that he left the government due to “political and methodological differences” with Pedro Nuno Santos, but stated that “in these episodes he” acted within his supervisory powers “and that he who got it wrong Lacerda Machado.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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