29 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Infrastructure of Portugal, João Galamba, has come out this Saturday in response to the accusations about the investigation of the payment of irregular compensation in the state airline TAP, of public administration.
“The Ministry has never wanted to hide any note from the investigation commission,” Galamba said at a press conference in which he pointed out to his former deputy, Frederico Pinheiro, because it was he who did not want to transfer the notes to the commission of the Parliament.
Pinheiro is the one who has unleashed the controversy because he has denied the Government in its version that it was investigating the irregular payment, which has led to his dismissal, reports the Portuguese newspaper ‘Diário de Notícias’. In addition, Galamba would have asked the Security Information Service (SIS) to recover Pinheiro’s computer.
Galamba has stressed that he meets “all the conditions to be in this government” in reference to the repeated calls for his resignation by the opposition. “The facts are clear, I would say crystal clear, and they demonstrate over and over again the efforts of all the members of my team and the repeated insistence that everything be collected,” he stated.
Galamba has announced that it has requested an extension to the investigation commission to deliver the notes of the secret meeting with a former TAP manager.
Regarding the request to the SIS, Galamba has assured that in the first place he contacted the Police after the attacks on two members of his cabinet and later he contacted the SIS and the Judicial Police because the computer had “a wide collection of classified documents” because they are organizations that “deal with data protection and cybersecurity”.
In the midst of the controversy, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has indicated that he will request information on what happened from the Prime Minister, António Costa.
“On this I only have to say two things: the first that (…) I do not have complete information on the subject and the second, that when I have complete information, the first person with whom I am going to speak is with the first Therefore, whatever I have to say, I will tell the prime minister,” he explained from Beja, in the south of Portugal.
