The former chief of staff of the Minister of Infrastructure, Maria Antonia Araujo, is heard before the TAP commission of inquiry this Wednesday on a disputed half-million-euro compensation to former airline administrator Alexandra Reis.
Maria Antonia Araujo was the chief of staff of former minister Pedro Nuno Santos, who resigned after paying a €500,000 compensation to Alexandra Reis, and currently heads the cabinet of Secretary of State for Infrastructure Frederico Francisco.
Therefore, the TAP commission of inquiry is expected to focus again on the disputed compensation after several hearings in which the majority of deputies focused on the events of April 26 at the Ministry of Infrastructure, in which João Galamba’s former deputy Frederico Pinheiro was involved. , and led to the intervention of the Security Information Service (SIS) due to the office computer being removed from the building.
Saying that he was not informed of the €500,000 compensation and after his resignation, Pedro Nuno Santos clarified in a statement that he, then Secretary of State Hugo Méndez and Chief of Staff Maria Antonia Araujo “did not remember” what they knew about the compensation and that the minister gave “political consent to close the process”.
“The only new information after my resignation that I felt it necessary to make public was a message I found on January 19, 2023 from my then Chief of Staff (GC) and Secretary of State (SE) which none of the three remembered, informing me of the final amount the agreement reached by the parties and the impossibility of further reducing the amount of compensation,” he said on January 20.
Maria Antonia Araujo’s hearing is scheduled for 18:00, so that before that the deputies discuss and vote on the various requests for hearings submitted by various parliamentary groups after the events of April 26 and the participation of the SIS.
Among them is the request for a written statement by the National Director of the Public Security Police (PSP) Manuel Magina da Silva for the hearings of the Director of SIS Adelio Neiva da Cruz, Secretary General of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP), Graça Mira-Gomes and the interrogation of Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who IL requested to be done in writing, but BE prefers to do it in person.
On Friday, the Assembly of the Republic approved a 60-day extension of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the TAP, which was scheduled for completion on May 23 to be able to “complete all necessary and agreed hearings”, the last hearing is scheduled for June 16 with the interrogation of the Minister of Finance Fernando Medina .
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.