Public auditors watchdog should retain some supervisory role over TAP

A former advisory judge from Portugal’s public companies audit watchdog, the Tribunal de Contas, believes that public companies that are part private controlled (as will be the case with airline TAP) or which operate in a competitive market should continue to be supervised by State-run regulating entities.

Vítor Caldeira thinks that the watchdog should not reduce its mandate of spending control over such companies.

During a parliamentary hearing held by the Committee on State and Local Government Reform regarding the Government’s bill to revise the rules governing the Court of Auditors’ oversight of public spending, the presiding judge argued against curtailing the Court’s mandate concerning its scope of intervention regarding public enterprises operating in competitive markets.

Caldeira commented on the fact that the bill submitted by the Government to the Portuguese Parliament (Assembly of the Republic) stipulates that state-owned enterprises operating in internationally competitive markets are exempt from the jurisdiction and financial oversight of the Court of Auditors—provided that a private shareholder holds a majority stake or, while holding a minority stake, possesses “management rights” over the company by virtue of a “shareholders’ agreement or statutory provision.”

Responding to questions from lawmakers across various parliamentary groups regarding potential amendments to the bill—which is currently undergoing detailed committee review—Vítor Caldeira noted that one of the final audits requested of the Court of Auditors during his tenure (which ended in 2020) concerned the privatisation of TAP.

“This parliament should not forget, for instance, that one of the last audits requested during my term was an audit of the TAP privatisation process,” he said.

Source: Negócios; Image: TAP