Former TAP president Fernando Pinto received 8.5 million euros between 2007 and 2020, including unused vacation time.

According to IGF, former TAP President Fernando Pinto received more than 8.5 million euros between 2007 and 2020, including remuneration, bonuses and services, including 175 days of unused vacation.

In a document to which Lusa had access, which reflects the findings of the audit by the Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) of TAP’s accounts, the organisation concluded that the payments made by Fernando Pinto amounted to 8.523 million euros, of which 6.463 million euros were “remuneration and bonuses as administrator for the period from 2007 to January 2018”.

According to the IGF, “this cost includes 326.7 thousand euros, which correspond to unused vacation time, and there appears to be no legal or contractual basis to support this payment.”

The IGF said this figure corresponded to “175 days plus an additional 70 days in accordance with the established rule” during which the organization was unable to obtain “evidence of the existence of an appropriate document confirming this.”

The institution recalled that it follows from the Labor Code that “the right to vacation remains inalienable and cannot be replaced, even by agreement with the employee, by any economic or other compensation,” and vacations, he recalled, “as a rule, are collected in the calendar year in which the term for their repayment occurs, or, in exceptional cases, in the following calendar year.”

The IGF later stated that “there can be no accumulation of leave for more than one year, let alone 13 years, as appears to have happened.”

The company also questions whether Fernando Pinto will be entitled to “monetary compensation for unused vacation time” under the Statute of the Public Administrator (EGP).

Later, the IGF recalled that in 2018, that is, after “the termination of the functions of the company’s administrator, a contract was signed between TAP, SA and Free Flight, Unip., Lda, whose sole partner is Fernando Pinto, and a manager to provide advisory and support services to the TAP Executive Committee”, although the IGF could not understand the manager’s work in this regard.

A “supplementary agreement to the services contract” was also signed between TAP and Fernando Pinto, providing for benefits during the contract period, including “life and health insurance, a company car and telephone, facilitation of air ticket purchases, logistical and legal support for the provision of services, support for the transfer of expenses to Brazil up to 15,000 euros and the right to participate in TAP’s share subscription plan, SGPS,” he said.

As for these benefits, which add 1.6 million euros to the cost of the former administrator’s services, “no information was provided on the additional cost to TAP,” he noted.

The government has already sent the report of the Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) on TAP to the Ministry of State (MP) after receiving it last week, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Miguel Pinto Luz announced today.