The Government has already sent the report from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) on TAP to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) after receiving it last week, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, said this Tuesday.
“The Government received the report last week, approved the report and sent it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Assembly of the Republic, as is its responsibility. All the necessary clarification will be provided”, Miguel Pinto Luz told journalists in Porto today, upon arriving at a meeting with the Metropolitan Area.
The minister, who at the time of TAP’s privatization in 2015 was Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications in the government of Pedro Passos Coelho (PSD/CDS-PP), said that the process “was one of the most scrutinized in Portuguese democracy”.
“There is nothing to hide, everything was transparent, that is what this Government is fighting for. It is fighting for transparency, for the complete opening of the processes. That is what we did, we will await the results”, he stated.
Miguel Pinto Luz recalled that “there was a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry” on the matter, and considered that “there is no new fact” in the IGF report “that has not been addressed” by the commission.
“Now it is up to the competent authorities to act. I will not say anything else about the matter today,” he added.
The IGF report on TAP states that Atlantic Gateway, a consortium of David Neeleman and Humberto Pedrosa, acquired 61% of the capital of TAP, SGPS, “committing to proceed with its capitalisation through supplementary capital contributions, of which 226.75 million US dollars (MUSD) were made through the partner DGN Corporation (DGN) with funds obtained from Airbus”.
That amount of capitalization, he adds, “coincides with the value of the penalty (226.75 MUSD) assumed by TAP, SA, in the event of non-compliance with the acquisition agreements for the 53 aircraft (A320 and A330), which highlights a possible causal relationship between the acquisition of the shares and the capitalization of TAP, SGPS and the contracts signed between TAP, SA and Airbus”.
The IGF suggests sending the report to the MP, especially taking into account the conclusions related to the privatization process of TAP and its relationship with the contracts for the acquisition of 53 aircraft from Airbus in 2015, as well as the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors.
On the last topic, the IGF concludes that the “available data” leads to the conclusion that “the payment of remuneration to the directors in question (Humberto Pedrosa, David Pedrosa and David Neeleman) was made through a simulated service provision contract (since apparently the purpose was not the same as that for which it was entered into), presenting itself merely as instrumental for the intended purpose”.
According to the report, this procedure “appears to be irregular in the payment/receipt of remuneration to members of the Board of Directors, who thus exempted themselves from responsibilities regarding taxation in terms of IRS and Social Security contributions”.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
