Former Secretary of State for Tourism Rita Marquez steps down from Fladgate job

Former tourism secretary of state Rita Marquez has stepped down as an administrator at The Fladgate Partnership, where she will head Taylor’s owner’s hotels and tourism department.

However, Rita Marquez claims that she was not involved in attributing incentives to the travel company.

“Given that my professional career has always been based on competence, rigor, strict ethical principles and values ​​and unconditional observance of the law, I understand that at this time I cannot accept the invitation addressed to me, and which provided for a return to work from January 16,” — writes Rita Marquez in a message on her page on the social network Linkedin.

The former Minister of Tourism, Trade and Services guarantees that she was not involved in the decisions on any specific benefit for this company: “In the performance of my duties, I have not played any role in assigning financial incentives or systems. tax benefits and benefits of a contractual nature of this company; and I did not have direct involvement in matters that resulted in a specific benefit for this company, since, since this is public, I have limited myself to confirming the tourist utility of a tourism enterprise that has the status of a “Project of National Interest – PIN” and whose tourist utility has been assigned to before I began to serve as secretary of state.

“In recent days, my name has come up in the midst of a lot of news that is not in line with the values ​​I advocate,” he stresses, noting that at the time of the invitation he signed based on the legal regime of incompatibility and barriers to political office holders and high government positions, “the conviction that there were no obstacles to the performance of these functions.”

Rita Marquez also explains that the invitation has not yet resulted in “the formalization of any obligations between the parties until today.”

The invitation was controversial as the former secretary of state moved from government to administrative roles in the Fladgate partnership group with responsibilities in the hotels and tourism division.

The Fladgate Partnership is a “holding company” owning the port wine business, which is the “founding company of the Taylor’s group founded in 1692”. More recently, he has entered the tourism sector, highlighting the creation of The Yeatman Hotel, which opened in 2010. He also owns the Vintage House Hotel in Pignan, as well as WOW (Wine World).

In a statement released this Thursday, the company announced that Rita Marquez had declined the invitation and justified its intention to recruit the former ruler’s knowledge and experience in areas of management and business that still fit “with the company’s growth goals and strategy.”

The group say they “understand the decision” of Rita Marquez and take into account her “striving for the greatest professional success.”

Political and media pressure to move has increased, with Prime Minister António Costa saying this Wednesday during a general policy debate in parliament that he is “99.9% sure” that “it’s illegal” Rita Marquez has started working. in a company in the sector he oversaw and “doesn’t fit with Republican ethics” when questioned about it.

The head of government also said that he had “not the slightest doubt that it is not in line with republican ethics for someone to leave the government and go to work in a company in relation to which he acted directly.”

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, considered this Thursday that the case of the former Secretary of State for Tourism is “legally obvious”, no matter what he decided as governor: “For me, before the law was passed, it was already ethically obvious. If there was a law, then it became legally obvious.”