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The government of Portugal has sacked the chief executive of state-owned carrier TAP Air Portugal (TP, Lisbon) following the delivery of a final report from the Inspectorate General of Finance (Inspeção-Geral de Finanças - IGF) probing an irregular severance payment of EUR500,000 euros (USD534,000) handed last year to a former executive board member.

Christine Ourmières-Widener and the airline’s chairman, Manuel Beja, were dismissed “with just cause” - without the right to receive compensation - after the IGF concluded that the severance deal signed between TAP and the former board member, Alexandra Reis, was illegal. This “makes the return of the unduly paid sums required,” Finance Minister Fernando Medina said during a press conference at the Ministry of Finance on March 6, as quoted by the newspaper Público.

Of the total she received, Reis will have to return EUR450,110 (USD480,468), because that is the part that the report considered to have been allocated illegally, he elaborated.

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