Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Medina announced that the government has dismissed the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive of flag carrier TAP, Manuel Beja and Christine Ourmières-Widener, after the inspectorate of Finance (IGF) reported certain Audit findings on the departure of board member Alexandra Reis from the company.
Medina, in a Joint conference with Infrastructure Minister João Galamba, also mentioned that “there will be no payment of compensation” to the outgoing executives.
To handle the current crisis after the senior leadership was fired , Luís Rodrigues, current CEO of Azorean airline SATA, will fill the gaps to take over as chairman and CEO of TAP, as per Galamba. However, there is no plan disturb the rest of the TAP Executive Committee , currently in office.
“By facing the problems head-on as we do and in a comprehensive manner, I have full confidence that TAP will successfully pursue the path to its future sustainability which will include the privatisation of part of its capital,” he said.
In December, Reis took office as secretary of state for the treasury when controversy erupted over the €500,000 compensation she received when she left the state-owned airline.
Reis said that the agreement to cease her duties “as director of the companies in the TAP universe” and the revocation of her “employment contract with TAP S.A.”, both requested by TAP, as well as its public communication, was agreed between the legal teams of both parties, mandated to ensure the adoption of best practices and strict compliance with all legal precepts.
Reis also said,
“I cannot agree with the IGF report, that is, with an opinion, and which is nothing more than that, which rewrites what happened to give what is probably the easiest answer. However, wrong”, it can be read- if in the communiqué cited by CNN. Thus, the former manager says that she does not want to have “a euro on which the slightest suspicion falls”.
“To be clear from the start: the agreement resulted from an initiative and proposal by TAP, which I accepted in good faith. And I agreed with the ultimate aim of avoiding institutional problems within the Executive Committee of TAP and because I had the firm that the same would be lawful, as well as all my subsequent acts”, he also said, stressing that what happened was a “dismissal for mere convenience”.
Alexandra Reis will have to return a total of 450,110.26 euros of the compensation paid to her by TAP, according to the audit report by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF).
Regardless of whether Reis left by “resignation or dismissal for mere convenience”, she “will have to return to TAP the amounts she received following the termination of her duties as director, which amount to €443,500, to which must be added at least €6,610.26, corresponding to benefits in kind”.
“The Agreement for the termination of contractual relations signed between TAP, SA and Eng.ª Alexandra Reis, involving a global compensation of 500 000 euros, is void except in the parts relating to the termination of the individual employment contract and the respective compensation (56,500 euros)”, says the report.
"The IGF also considers due “the payment of the remuneration for the month of February 2022 (17,500 euros)”.
