Securities commission looking into TAP compensation payment

  • Lusa
  • 30 December 2022

The €500,000 compensation TAP paid to Alexandra Reis led the minister of infrastructure and housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, to resign on Wednesday night to "take political responsibility" for the case.

Portugal’s Securities Market Commission (CMVM) said in response to Lusa that it is analysing the “applicable legal consequences” in the case of the termination of the contract of former secretary of state for the Treasury, Alexandra Reis.

“Whenever the conduct of supervised entities reveals non-compliance, it is up to the CMVM to assess, in the context of the supervision procedures instituted and in respect for its duties of secrecy, the legal consequences applicable to each concrete case,” the CMVM said in response to Lusa, after clarification from TAP.

On Wednesday evening, the airline said that the resignation presented by Alexandra Reis “occurred following a negotiation process on the initiative of TAP to reach an agreement to terminate all existing contractual ties between Alexandra Reis and TAP”.

On 4 February, in a communication to the market, TAP announced Alexandra Reis’ “resignation from her position”, saying that she had decided to “close this chapter of her professional life” and embrace “new challenges”.

The CMVM added that it “monitors, within the scope of its legal powers to protect investors, the information disclosed by issuers that finance themselves through the capital market”.

In this sense, it ensures that “it takes into consideration all relevant facts that may indicate disconformities, inconsistencies or that affect the understandability of the information disclosed, taking steps to ensure the restoration of the quality of information.

The €500,000 compensation TAP paid to Alexandra Reis led the minister of infrastructure and housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, to resign on Wednesday night to “take political responsibility” for the case.

This was the third government resignation in two days, after Alexandra Reis, of the treasury portfolio, at the centre of the compensation controversy, and the secretary of state for infrastructure, Hugo Santos Mendes, resigned following Pedro Nuno Santos’ decision.

The Liberal Initiative has announced a no-confidence motion against the government in parliament, where the PS has an absolute majority.

Alexandra Reis received compensation for leaving early, in February, as executive director of the airline. In June, she was appointed by the government to the presidency of Portugal’s ait traffic control company (NAV) and this month, she was chosen as secretary of state for the treasury.

The decision to compensate Alexandra Reis, reported by Correio da Manhã, was criticised by all the opposition and even questioned by the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.