The privatization of ANA — Aeroportos de Portugal, carried out at the beginning of 2013, represented 3,000 million euros, an unprecedented amount for the State, but it left a blind knot for those who have to negotiate and decide the future of the airport, according to the two ministers (of the PS) who held the portfolio, Pedro Marques between 2016 and 2019 and Pedro Nuno Santos, who in 2020 described the sale of the airport concessionaire as “the most ruinous privatization in history” for the State and the interest public.
Ten years after the privatization of ANA began, the operation has not yet been scrutinized by the Court of Auditors, despite the fact that the process began in 2014/2015, but was interrupted. In 2018, the Parliament once again requested the Court of Auditors to audit the sale operation in accordance with the conditions of the concession contract for the operation of airports… which has not been concluded so far.
In a lengthy response to the observer, the Court of Auditors said that work is ongoing and points the finger at protecting the infrastructure that created and then allowed a conflict of interest situation in the aeronautical regulator, ANAC, which lasted until last year. This conflict, which results from the president and vice president of the regulator coming directly from ANA, the regulated company, was denounced in an audit of the financing of the airport sector regulation published in 2020.
And it constituted, an official TdC source confirmed to the Observer, a condition to carry out the audit requested by Parliament, since the recommendation made in 2020 to replace the aforementioned personalities, in an audit of the ANAC (National Civil Aviation Authority) , was not accepted by the Ministry of Infrastructure. Luís Silva Ribeiro, who before assuming the presidency of ANAC was director of the already privatized ANA, and Carlos Seruca Salgado, who was an advisor to the administration of the airport manager, only left at the end of their mandate in 2021.
This article is exclusive to our subscribers: subscribe now and benefit from unlimited reading and other benefits. If you are already a subscriber, log in here. If you think this message is an error, please contact our customer service.
Source: Observadora
